A statement from Brimbank City Council Mayor, Cr Lucinda Congreve
After considering our options, Brimbank Council has made a difficult decision not to appeal the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) decision to uphold the EPA's decision to expand the Melbourne Regional Landfill.
As a Council we share the extreme disappointment of our community with the decision by VCAT to grant approval for the expansion.
We understand there will be people in our community who will be disappointed with our decision not to appeal.
We share this disappointment, however after considering all options Council could not justify the legal costs involved, for a case we are unlikely to win.
Our decision does not signal an end to our two years of work around the Ravenhall tip.
Our focus now is to advocate on behalf of our community to the EPA and the State Government to ensure Landfill Operations Pty Ltd meets the conditions of its licence, and to push for more action and investment around alternative and advanced waste and resource recovery technology.
As the authority who exists to protect the environment from adverse impacts of waste and unwanted noise, the EPA has a key responsibility to regulate compliance of the Landfill Operations Pty Ltd, and to make sure it meets its licence conditions.
We will write to the EPA to reiterate this.
Victoria needs to look to the future and find innovative sustainable alternatives to landfilling.
The State Government has a responsibility to spearhead action and investment in sustainable and advanced waste technologies that will move our state away from relying on obsolete and ineffective waste disposal methods such as landfills.
We will write to the State Government, including Premier Daniel Andrews, to push for investment and action into alternative and advanced waste and resource recovery technology.
We are also calling for Landfill Operations Pty Ltd to keep the Melbourne Regional Community Reference Group regularly updated on how it is meeting the conditions of its licence.
I would like to acknowledge and thank those residents and community groups – including Stop the Tip – for their tireless efforts and tremendous work to get to this point.
