Street’s a tip

By Lia Bichel
BAD lighting and high tip prices are being blamed for rubbish being dumped on Casey streets.
Residents have raised concerns about items being thrown in piles at construction sites, shopping strips and residential areas.
Hampton Park resident Michele Halsall said last month there were piles of rubbish at the corner of Evans Road and South Gippsland Highway in Lynbrook, about half a kilometre from a tip.
The pile included mattresses, armchairs, furniture, carpet and boxes.
In Endeavour Hills, Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan said constituents were alerting him to overflowing rubbish and a general state of untidiness at a construction site and at Heatherton Road shopping strip.
Mr Donnellan said the state of the shopping strip had been a growing concern for residents for years, including a lack of adequate site fencing around ongoing construction and bad lighting at night.
Endeavour Hills resident Tricia Clarke said she believed people were not dumping their rubbish at the tip because it was too expensive – and said some rubbish was being dumped in places which were not well lit. She had advocated to the council many years ago to introduce a ‘Light Up the City’ policy, which they adopted; however, some areas were not lit up.
City of Casey Manager of transport Paul Hamilton said the council was unable to provide lighting to all public areas across the municipality due to the size of the municipality and its cost implications.
Mr Donnellan said residents, shop tenants and shoppers deserve better and the mess on Heatherton Road needed to be cleaned up.
“Under local laws, land must not be unsightly, dangerous or detrimental to the general amenity of the neighbourhood, but there is a clear case that the land around these shops is,” he said.
“Casey council and the owner of the land need to ensure residents and shopkeepers do not have to traverse a wilderness of rubbish just to go to the chemist, gym and their place of work.”
For the rubbish in Lynbook, City of Casey Manager of Roads and Construction Rob Kriek said council has investigated, and as the rubbish was located on VicRoads’ land, council contacted VicRoads to remove the dumped rubbish as a matter of urgency.
City of Casey Acting manager Waste and Recycling, Vandana Rama, said SITA Australia owns and runs a landfill site at Hampton Park. Council has no control over the pricing at this site.
“Council provides households with two pre-booked hard waste collections annually, as part of Council’s waste services for residents. Council investigates all enquiries regarding dumped waste, whether it is on the roadside, park or on a nature strip,” Ms Rama said.
“Offenders can be fined substantially if they do not remove waste that is found to be theirs.”
If residents have information regarding possible offenders that can assist cuncil with its investigations, call Customer Service on 9705 5200.