BY BELLA MIDDLETON
Photo Credit: The Conversation
Energy company Santos has been accused of bullying and intimidating land owners along the proposed Hunter Gas Pipeline route into allowing access to their land for the project.
Numerous residents along the route have received letters referring to visits and communications with the energy giant which they say never occurred.
It comes as the company prepares to make progress on the controversial project, kicking off a new round of community consultations in the Hunter this week.
President of the Hunter Gas Landholder Alliance Meg Bowman is shocked at claims Santos has met with local property owners without their knowledge.
"Land owners have been sent letters stating 'thank you for recently meeting with our and access team'; these have gone out to many landholders and in none of the cases is that actually true.
We see these comments in these letters as trying to intimidate and threaten land holders."
Santos and the Hunter Gas Pipeline did not respond to questions about the letters and latest interactions with land holders.
Fellow Hunter Gas Landholder Alliance member Anne McGowen has encouraged land holders to stand their ground and remember their right to say no.
"I had someone contact me yesterday who said they had just received a letter from Santos. They wanted to know if anything had changed [regarding access]. I said no, nothing has changed. You have the right to say no," she said.
"We think that Santos are sending these letters out so they can say to the department that they have been in discussions with the landowners when they haven't.
We have advised that [landowners] complain to the department and their local MPs."
