Talking rubbish

By Bridget Cook
CASEY Council, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Health came under fire at a public meeting for the Cemetery Road waste transfer station this week.
About 50 local residents and business operators attended the Monday night meeting about the future of the Cranbourne waste transfer station, which has been the centre of controversy for the past few months.
After residents rallied for months about the stench coming from the site, the council resolved to stop accepting non-recyclable material at the site as of Monday.
Green waste from the council’s kerbside green waste service will stop being accepted at the site from 1 July and the closure of the station is scheduled for January 2012.
After City of Casey manager waste management Michael Jansen, Bronwyn Green from the EPA and Rodney Dedman from the Department of Health spoke to the crowd, the public had a chance to ask questions.
And despite the organisations taking actions to help alleviate the stink and close the station, there was still plenty of angst towards them from the community.
Local mini-skip business operator Tony Bayley said he was disgusted at the actions taken by the council to stop accepting non-recyclable materials. He said local business had only been given one month’s notice to find a new site to dump their rubbish.
He said the Cemetery Road operators had catered for smaller business as they had a minimum one-tonne tipping rate. Other nearby sites, the Hallam Road and Lysterfield transfer stations, had a two-tonne minimum.
He asked the council, where had Casey planned for rubbish to go now and in the future?
“We offer good service to ratepayers,” he said. “We now have nowhere to go.”
Mr Jansen said it was not the council responsibility to set the market rate.
“We opened the transfer station as a service to the community,” he said. “It was the operator’s choice to provide a better service to commercial businesses.”
“Secondly, the original plan relied on the Skye transfer station being open. “When that re-opens in July, it will fill the gap.”
Mr Bayley said local business had been left in limbo until the Skye site re-opened
Councillor Geoff Ablett, who has been lobbying to have the station closed on behalf of the residents, later apologised to local skip bin operators.
“It is a lack of planning on our (council’s) behalf,” he said.
“We simply didn’t think of you guys. We need to get off our bums and get a facility to service the South East.”
Other concerns raised by residents were health-related.
With 30 minutes allocated for question time by the council, many residents were told to write down their questions, and put them in a box to be attended to later.