Greater Dandenong Council has ordered a small business body corporate in Springvale to clean-up strangers’ rubbish dumped at its private car park or cop a penalty.
Located on Springvale Road, the small retail strip has been plagued by illegal dumping, mainly of household furniture.
Frustratingly for the body corporate, the mounds of junk are only centimetres away from a public road owned by the council.
Multiple mattresses, couches, tables, clothes, shoes are dumped at the site as the issue has snowballed since Covid times.
Ace Body Corporate, which manages the small businesses strip, calls it a “continued problem” as they plea to Greater Dandenong for a proper and long-term solution.
Instead, it says they’ve been, “stonewalled” by new council officers and their “strict stance,” saying the previous officers understood the complex situation and had provided them with some relief.
“It’s never-ending, and we’re fed up. It’s a fact that it’s a hotspot,” a spokesperson said.
“The problem is Council is giving threats to clean-up or pay a fine, but it’s not our rubbish. People dump it in that corner, and it gets moved out the way to get access to the road.
“It’s just a really unfair approach to one small group of businesses – we can’t even afford to pay for insurance properly.
“They have to deal with it from a different perspective because not every private property is targeted.”
Meanwhile, there’s a Tuesday 11 November deadline looming for the body corporate to clean-up the rubbish.
Otherwise it will face a penalty infringement and being taken to the Magistrates’ Court for a potential fine up to $2000, with the council ordering in its own contractors to clean up at the cost of the body corporate.
While they understand the council does not clean up private land, Ace believe the area should be treated differently because it’s a dumping hotspot.
During the pandemic, Ace claims that the council regularly removed up to eight dumped mattresses at a time from the same site. But the council had since then withdrawn its assistance.
Currently, rubbish piles up in the hotspot about every two months, making it costly to arrange a clean-up every time, according to the Ace spokesperson.
The latest eye-sore includes three mattresses
The spokesperson believes nearby residents were the likely illegal dumpers.
Installation of gates to the private car park was considered by the body among other options, at an estimated cost of $15,000 to $20,000 excluding maintenance.
However, due to the car park’s position, a small portion of it would remain outside the gate meaning if rubbish is dumped there, the body would still be responsible for its removal.
City of Greater Dandenong Council city futures executive director Sanjay Manivasagasivam, refused to provide a helping hand to the body corporate’s desperate plea during public question time at a council meeting on 27 October.
He said while the council understands the frustration and its financial burden on small businesses, it doesn’t remove waste from private property.
“This responsibility remains with the landowner or occupier as intervening would set a precedent that is not sustainable across the municipality.
“We understand this can be frustrating particularly when dumping occurs just metres away from public land.
He agreed to work with the residents of the high-rise dwellings to provide “targeted education and collateral materials to residents” including how to order a hard rubbish collection service.
“Council currently operates large range of education programs aimed at reducing illegal dumping and promoting awareness of hard rubbish collection services.”
Maninvasagasivam later told Star Journal that it would “ensure the property owners have sufficient time to remove the illegally dumped rubbish and provide them advice on managing this problem through the
correct channels”.
