"Enormous pressure" from residents has brought too much emotion into councillors' decision-making on solar, says Greater Hume mayor Heather Wilton.
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A formal position on the Glenellen project decided on November 18 was thrown out at an extraordinary meeting, after a rescission motion was successfully led by Cr Lea Parker.
"Considering that councillors' consistent stance was to object to solar farm developments, this being the fourth one, I was very surprised [with last week's decision]," she said.
"Unfortunately, two councillors including myself were unable to be present, and I thought with such a sensitive and important subject, that it was important for all councillors to be present for that kind of motion.
"Our concerns have not disappeared."
Councillor Tony Quinn, whose motion was ultimately passed last week, said it "hit hard a couple of serious points" about traffic problems and developer contributions, arguing he could "poke holes" in council's previous objections.
Cr Quinn was warned by general manager Steven Pinnuck he was "bordering on a breach of the code of conduct" after he questioned the objectivity of environment and planning director Colin Kane's submissions.
Cr Quinn and Cr Wilton voted against a motion that reinstated Mr Kane's objecting submission.
"There is a really serious need for us to dig deep into our conscience and see if we haven't got a conflict of interest over this one," Cr Wilton said.
"Because I think a lot of these decisions are being made because of pressure from family, friends, [and] neighbours.
"The pressure has been tremendous.
"If you vote in favour or against ... and you're listening to emotive factors and not the reality of what planning says and planning law is, that's when we'll all get into trouble."
Mr Kane's objecting submission was reinstated with the support of the majority and will become council's formal position to the NSW government.
Some councillors are at odds with the staff's recommendation for construction traffic to go through Jindera.
The developers are proposing to take Glenellen Road but engineering director Greg Blackie's advice is that traffic should go through Urana Road.
On Urana Road, there are over 760 heavy vehicles, of which 100 or so are B-Doubles, and Glenellen Road takes 22 heavy vehicles of which two are B-Doubles.
"Adding 50 trucks a day, which is what the EIS has said, would more than triple the amount of heavy vehicles on Glenellen Road, whereas it would be about a 10th [of traffic] on Urana Road," Mr Blackie said.
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He has concerns about safety and deterioration with the road needing to be widened, among other things.
A motion was passed to put specific recommendations to the NSW government, such as that heavy vehicle traffic should avoid school hours.
If the Glenellen Solar Farm is approved, a traffic management study and plan would need to be done.