By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
Chinese developers have been told to be cautions over their plans to develop a theme park within sniffing distance of a major sewage treatment plant.
This month the Journal revealed Greater Dandenong Council was in talks with Chongqing Mexin (Group) Industry over a proposed theme park at 616 Frankston-Dandenong Road.
The site is within the outer reaches of the Eastern Treatment Plant buffer area – an environmental significance overlay that limits “odour-sensitive” development around the plant.
Last week the Bangholme plant’s acting manager Phil Pearmain said any development within the buffer must be “carefully considered” to ensure it didn’t impact on the plant’s services and that “public amenity and safety” was maintained.
Nearby resident Alan Hood, who has stared down the council’s attempts to shrink Bangholme’s green wedge in the past, said the site, which was within the “severely flood-prone” Carrum Swamp, was unsuitable for development.
He said the council had a duty of care to avoid subjecting “thousands of families with children” to the “unconscionable” risk of a chlorine accident at the plant.
Mr Hood cited a Melbourne Water submission to a State Government hearing last year, which stated the plant was a designated “major hazard facility” due to the “nature and quantity of the chemicals stored and used”.
“There is potential for major incidents with off-site consequences to occur,” the submission stated.
Mr Hood said the council “knew this type of development was impossible without moving the (treatment plant)”.
Grant Hailes, managing director of development consultants Beveridge Williams, said the overlay had been considered with a “range of factors” prior to the land purchase in August.
“It’s no doubt a factor. It’s just a matter of managing our way through that.”
He said “plenty of people” lived and worked in the buffer zone, including Willow Lodge residents and those at Bunurong Cemetery.
“That’s as good a testament as any.”
The buffer zone specifically excludes uses that require “the presence of a large number of people over an extended period of time”.
A council spokeswoman said the council would not comment before any planning application was lodged.
The plant treats sewerage from more than 1.6 million people in Melbourne’s south-east.
