by Cam Lucadou-Wells
The proponent for a soil transfer station near a Bangholme retirement village in the Green Wedge has appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
In September, Greater Dandenong Council had cited 19 grounds for refusing a permit for the GND Civil project at 576 Frankston Dandenong Road.
At the same address but in a separate project, Eastern Seaboard Industries is operating a massive, allegedly contaminated soil mound and earthworks under investigation by the council and Environment Protection Authority Victoria.
Residents of the neighbouring Willow Lodge retirement village are among at least 200-plus objectors to the waste station.
Plans In Motion, acting for GND Civil Group, recently lodged an application for a VCAT review.
Its statement rejects each of the 19 grounds for refusal made by the council, states it is operating on a “small parcel” within the site and that “some objections mistakenly confuse the application” with the adjoining earthworks.
According to GND’s submission, the proposed 3.4-hectare waste-water and soil transfer station would take in about 20,000 litres of slurry a month.
It would include a soil stockpile, settling ponds, slurry pits and buried containers behind the existing flower-growing business.
Water from the ponds would be used to irrigate flowers and grass for livestock.
Soil would be removed from the slurry pits to dry on a stockpile and then moved off site once a month.
GND Civil has been operating the soil transfer station for several years, with the council refusing two permit applications in 2022 and this year.
In its notice of decision on 6 September, the council stated the transfer station failed to meet the objectives of the Green Wedge, and floodplain and air quality management requirements.
The station would result in “significant amenity impacts” as well as “significant social effect” given the objections of a Willow Lodge residents group, the council found.
The proposal was also found to lack adequate car parking, and was contrary to other planning objectives and strategies, such as protection of agricultural land, sustainable industry, waste and resource recovery and industrial.
A VCAT compulsory conference is set for 7 February, with a four-day hearing from 3-6 June.
