Singleton Council’s planning and regulatory services director Mark Ihlein told the Planning Assessment Commission the project, near Bulga, had the potential for significant community impact and the council had unanimously resolved not to support it on four occasions.

‘‘The council’s objection is in terms of the likely adverse impacts in respect of environmental, community and infrastructure impacts,’’ Mr Ihlein said.

He told the meeting an 18 per cent increase in new dwellings in the area since 2002 did not appear to have been taken into account in noise assessments.

‘‘The community is not confident the use of out-dated background noise data has provided accurate foundation to model noise impacts,’’ he said.

The council’s other criticisms included a lack of clarity on the full extent of the project’s affect on air quality and no evidence the Hunter New England Health was consulted on this important issue, he said.

Mr Ihlein said there was concern rehabilitation of the mined area was not given a high enough priority.

The project has been recommended for approval by the Department of Planning and, if approved by the commission, will mine through Saddleback Ridge near the village and result in the closure of council-controlled Wallaby Scrub Road.

The ridge was the subject of a deed of agreement between the company and the NSW Government that set it aside for conservation but the deed was never implemented.

Mr Ihlein said setting aside this agreement ‘‘seriously undermined’’ community confidence in government processes.

He said the assessment process of projects often ‘‘watered down’’ their environmental impacts.

‘‘The extent of these recommended mitigation measures effectively masks the overall impact and might not demonstrate satisfaction of the principles of ecologically sustainable development as required by the environmental planning and assessment act,’’ he said.

Coal & Allied propose to extend the life of the Mount Thorley Warkworth mine by 21 years and extract an addditional 200million tonnes of coal.

The commission’s meetings are continuing today and will resume tomorrow.

These meetings are the final phase of the approval process for the project.