The draft plan, released by New South Wales Department of Planning and Infrastructure, categorises land across the North West area according to its potential for agriculture, mining or coal seam gas exploration.

The majority of the Moree Shire is not classed as prime agricultural land, except a small section along the Gwydir River and another section south east of the township.

Director of Planning and Development Lester Rogers said at a council meeting last Thursday he was concerned about the allocation of prime agricultural land.

“We are extremely disappointed with the release of the maps at the amount of land designated as prime agricultural land,” Mr Rogers said.

“It comes as a surprise that apparently Moree has very little of it,” he said.

In contrast, areas designated as having low to moderate potential for coal seam gas mining covered the majority of the shire.

Areas designated as having high potential for underground mining covered the entire shire aside from a strip north of Ashley.

Councillor Tim Wannan pointed out the discrepancy between the amount of land designated for mining and the amount designated as prime agricultural.

“They’ve basically classed the whole shire except for one little strip along the wetlands as open slather for coal,” Cr Wannan said.

Cr Humphries agreed.

“It is totally unacceptable,” she said.

“It’s some bureaucrat thumbing their nose at the stance Moree Plains Shire Council has taken (on this issue).

“Well we’ll give them something to thumb their nose at,” she said.

Moree Plains Shire Council senior planner Murray Amos said the criteria used to map prime agricultural land was flawed.

“The Department of Primary Industries provided the data and we understand the data was very limited,” Mr Amos said.

“These maps need to be accurate and at the moment they are operating on a very low level of information,” he said.

A meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 20 at Gunnedah Town Hall with representatives from New South Wales Department of Planning and Infrastructure available for questions and feedback.

Any interested residents are encouraged to attend.

The meeting will start at 12 noon.

New South Wales Department of Planning and Infrastructure deputy director of development assessments Richard Pearson said he was keen to receive public feedback on the draft plan.

“There is no doubt that Moree Plains is a significant contributor to the state’s agricultural production and the government is very keen to hear from the local community,” Mr Pearson said.

He said there would also be a more informal session at Moree library on Wednesday evening where individual members of the public could ask questions one-on-one and discuss some of the finer points of the policy in more detail.

“The plans and policies that have been released are still very much in draft form and the feedback we receive will play an important role in finalising these documents,” Mr Pearson said.

“Obviously the criteria used to define strategic agricultural land will be one of the issues that people will want to comment on and we certainly welcome that input,” he said.

Mr Amos said the council would be trying to get the criteria changed.

“The primary aim is to get these maps altered to our satisfaction,” Mr Amos said.

Cr Humphries urged all interested parties to attend.

“It is extremely important that people attend the meeting… to ask questions and to see what the New South Wales Department of Planning and Infrastructure has inappropriately mapped our community as,” Cr Humphries said.

Mr Rogers supported this point.

“Even if people are not available to attend the meeting they need to make a submission,” Mr Rogers said.

“The more public involvement we have the more chance we have of getting to an outcome that is more acceptable to the community,” he said.

See the Moree council website for more details.