At its advisory Open Spaces committee, the decision was to recommend the car-park behind the Visitor Information Centre or the corner of the race course between Dumaresq Street and the Gwydir Highway equally, with Veness Park as a third possibility.

The recommendation will go to the council for a decision at the end of the month, but six of the seven councillors were at the advisory meeting so the short-list is unlikely to be changed.

Veness Park was chosen as a third choice even though it was decided on by the council at its meeting back in March but then put up for review at the meeting in August.

In between the two contradictory decisions, Nola Taylor whose house overlooks the park intervened with a threat of legal action because she said the council hadn’t followed the full and proper planning procedure because the park was a heritage listed site.

At the Open Spaces committee meeting on Thursday, the council’s economic development officer, Graham Price, said the council’s legal advice was that there wouldn’t be a big problem with choosing the park again.

All the same, the previous strong feeling in favour of Veness Park was diluted.

And the feeling for either the Visitor Centre car park or the racecourse has strengthened.

In favour of the race-course is that wind farm turbines are just about visible from there; it’s easy to access, and off a road the council has control over – the highway would need special permission from the state government.

In favour of the Visitor Centre: it’s central to town and visitors already stop there; there’s parking alongside. The fifty metre long blade would be on three metre high plinths along one wall of the car park.

A proposal by Cr Andrew Parsons to stand it vertically was ruled out. That plan would need many tonnes of concrete – perhaps more than a hundred – and would be a serious and costly engineering job.

The deadline for moving the blade has shifted. Initially, it was thought to be imminent but it’s emerged that the special trucks will be in the area longer because work at the Sapphire Wind Farm is taking longer than expected.

The blade was discarded by the White Rock Wind Farm and Glen Innes contractor, Jay Weir, persuaded the company to donate it. It now lies in the yard of his company, Weir Built, where concrete plinths are to be constructed to be set into holes in the ground in the park. One hole has already been dug and filled in again.

Mr Weir is not charging for storage. At Thursday’s meeting, the council’s engineering chief, Keith Appleby, said that there were no extra costs to the delay. 

The total cost is estimated at $30,000 to $40,000 but that money is allocated. if the project is abandoned, the money would have been wasted but any of the three sites would not amount to more money spent.

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