A new piggery development could generate $7 million a year in revenue for Harden.
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Hilltops Council has been asked to consider the application for a 2200 sow pig farm on Eulie Road at Harden.
The application is for Intensive Livestock Agriculture consisting of a breeder site with five sheds and a grower site with 16 sheds and associated ancillary infrastructure, farm buildings, office, tree removal and electricity generating works.
Hilltops Council rejected an application for a piggery at the property from the proponent Blantyre Farms in 2017.
The new application, according to Blantyre's Edwina Beveridge, is very different to the proposal rejected in 2017.
A whole range of technical experts are working on the current application, Ms Beveridge told the Harden Express.
"We have used numerous technical experts to help with the DA, who have done extensive work in their respective areas to ensure we have a really thorough development application.," Ms Beveridge said.
"The project will incorporate new technologies, including capturing methane from the pigs manure to generate renewable power.
"The pigs will also be fed by a liquid feed system, which can incorporate food waste products, like day old bread or confectionery past its used by date.
"Not only is it great pig feed, it also helps reduce landfill and reduce carbon emissions.
"As far the farm, there are quite a few changes, we have amended the area that we put liquid effluent on.
"We've also changed the road in and there's been lots of other changes to try to address the issues we had last time.
"It's taken a long time, it has been more than two years since the last application and we've been working on it nearly that the whole time, making sure we had everything covered to make sure we put it right," Ms Beveridge said.
Hilltops councillors were told at their February meeting that the application had been received on January 17 this year and council staff are currently reviewing it before placing the application on public exhibition for 28 days.
The application then needs to be referred to Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, the Environmental Protection Authority, Office of Environmental Heritage, Transport for NSW and the Natural Resources Access Regulator.
Ms Beveridge said she expects the development to conservatively generate 25 jobs in Harden, adding that the economic benefits for the town would be quite significant.
"There is a study done by Australian Pork Limited showing that in country towns a piggery of this size should contribute more than $7 million to the local economy," she said.
Blantyre Farms first lodged a Development Application for the site with the former Harden Shire Council in 2015 which was rejected by the amalgamated Hilltops Council administrator in July 2017.
At the time, Ms Beveridge said "the Beveridges have been farming in Harden for over 100 years, we want to grow our business here, it is a sad day when we are treated so poorly".
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