THE committees designed to keep the community up to date on Whitehaven Coal's mines have been labelled a "box-ticking exercise" by some farmers, who say they fail at the one thing they're designed to do.
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Community consultation committees (CCCs) are made up of various local representatives that meet with the proponent of a state-significant project, to bring up the concerns of residents or seek information on their behalf.
However, those near Whitehaven's Maules Creek and Werris Creek mines say that's difficult, given almost no contact details are listed for CCC members, as recommended by government guidelines.
Breeza farmer Peter Wills said there was a distinct lack of transparency surrounding Whitehaven's CCCs.
Despite being a neighbour to the Werris Creek mine, his request to sit in on the CCC as an observer was denied.
"It feels like there is something to hide," Mr Wills said.
"Not a lot of people in the community have faith that the CCC is a good community representative."
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A Whitehaven spokesperson dismissed concerns about the lack of contact details, and said "generally speaking" the CCC process worked well.
"There is no shortage of ways for people to provide feedback directly to us, including directly by phone, email and via Community Consultative Committees," the spokesperson said.
The NSW government's guidelines state: "The name, credentials and (if the member agrees) contact details of all members of the CCC be published in a prominent position on the proponent's website."
In November, the Werris Creek CCC members decided against listing their contact details.
"After discussion, the concern clearly expressed by the majority was that once personal details are freely available on the website, then they could never be retrieved," the minutes of the meeting state.
Mr Wills pointed to the Boggabri mine committee as an example of what "best practice in community engagement looks like".
Boggabri mine CCC member Anna Christie had nothing but praise for the organisation.
"They go above and beyond their requirements of being open and transparent," she said.
"They've taken us on multiple visits to the site, and even allowed us to do citizen scientist testing, where we mapped the koala habitat."