Wednesday’s snap cancellation of the Independent Planning Commission public meeting at Singleton on the United Wambo open cut mine proposal near Jerrys Plains caused “community outrage”, according to Mr Lonergan.

“The sudden decision to cancel the forum on the day demonstrates total disregard for the inconvenience to the community,” he said.

“People had taken a day off work, rearranged their lives and put a substantial time into preparing for the meeting.

“This poor management is completely emblematic of the problems with the planning system in NSW.”

Mr Lonergan went on to say that Wednesday’s debacle, along with recent revelations from whistle blowers within the Department of Planning, reinforced the urgent need for a special commission of inquiry.

“The reason for the sudden change was a last-minute finding of a conflict of interest of two appointed commissioners,” he explained.

“The second appointee was a twice former manager of Wambo.

“Any last shred of trust in this process and the so-called independence of commissioners have now been lost.

“The depth of conflict of interest in approval for mines is too great to ignore. 

“Only a special commission of inquiry can reveal the extent of the problems. 

“The community can be excused for suspecting a level of corruption in the process.

“The United Wambo Mine proposal is a major cumulative impact in the central area of the Hunter where there is already saturation in the level of open cut mines. 

“This project should not have progressed this far through the planning process if rigorous cumulative impact assessment had been applied.”