Mayor says VCAT knew of the risks

CASEY council has rejected some of the Ombudsman’s report and still maintains the State Government should chip in to ease the council’s financial burden.
Mayor Geoff Ablett said the council’s decision to join the EPA in the residents’ class action had been vindicated given much of the report highlighted the failure of the environmental regulator.
The council has rejected the Ombudsman’s finding that VCAT was not made fully aware of the risk of a gas explosion at the Stevensons Road closed landfill.
“VCAT is an expert panel and one of its members was an industrial chemist. It is disappointed that the Ombudsman could not investigate the merits of the decision made by VCAT,” Cr Ablett said.
In his report, the Ombudsman said VCAT was not presented with key information regarding the risks of an explosion.
The council had rejected the developer’s planning application to build inside a 200 metre safety buffer beside the landfill.
But the developer appealed to VCAT and the council decision was overruled. “If the buffer at the Stevensons Road site had remained we wouldn’t have had methane leaking into houses close to the landfill boundary,” Cr Ablett said recently.
Cr Ablett said the EPA should have conducted a risk assessment before the emergency was declared at the estate.
“The City of Casey maintains the view that the level of risk has always been at an acceptable level.
“The EPA has conceded that a risk assessment should, in fact, have been conducted before the emergency was declared. Failure by the EPA to do so has resulted in social disruption that the Ombudsman mentioned.”
As the News reported last week, the council wants the State Government to chip in and commit $35.6 million to help ease the “enormous financial burden” the council and ratepayers faced.
“The City of Casey believes that the residents of Casey should not have to bear the cost that has been caused by a situation that a range of parties have contributed to, many of which are State Government authorities and entities.”