Scales tipped

By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Ranges Council will no longer have control over tip fees following a decision to privatise it’s Coldstream and Wesburn waste transfer stations.
Mayor Graham Warren used his casting vote to tip the scales on a decision to lease both sites to Knox Transfer Stations Pty Ltd.
The lease will give the company a free-hand for the management and operation of the sites for 10 years, with a further five- year option.
Cr Richard Higgins said it was time Yarra Ranges “raised the ante” on its waste management, and moved to a more professional operation which would include better recycling. Cr Chris Templer said it was about efficiency. “It costs money to truck waste 67 kilometres to the landfill we use in Lyndhurst, and I believe we can do better. That’s why we’ve gone with a private operator he said.”
Councillors Len Cox and Jeanette McRae however challenged the proposal, asking what assurances council had on future price increases to residents.
Director Environment and Engineering Mark Vermalis said the price structure indicating how charges would be set was in the contract awarded to the company prior to Christmas and dealt with operation.
“There has been a price structure that indicates how charges will be set and they are comparable to charges we see across other transfer stations in neighbouring municipalities,” Mr Vermalis said.
“Because of the nature of the contract on which we are engaging, we can’t control the prices; they will be up to the operators.”
Mr Vermalis said price would be addressed by the commercial activities of the transfer stations and competition in an open market.
Cr Cox was bothered, however, by the possibility of explaining “open market forces” to the thousands of ratepayers who use the two sites.
“I think this has a lot of advantages to council; I think we save over $100,000 a year over 10 years, but the big issue is that we have totally lost control of what it costs to drop rubbish at a transfer station. If the operator wants to put costs up, he can put them up as much as he likes and we have no control,” he said.
Cr Cox said in previous discussions on the privatisation he had stated that council needed to have some control, but that the process had just gone ahead without any opportunity to change it. “I don’t want to be telling them (ratepayers) we can’t control the prices and see prices going through the roof and we can’t do anything about it,” he said.
Cr Higgins said the savings to council would be more like $300,000 a year by transferring operations to a private operator and warned council would not have the final say on costs in the future in any case.
“I think the government will be dictating the costs of landfill before we can get a say n it. They have done it twice in my term in council already,” he said.
He said Knox Transfer Stations was a company that recycles just about everything that can be recycled and was a professional operation.
“I don’t believe council has the ability to run a tip at the level it needs to be run. It is a big ask that requires specialisation and would require more funds to do it properly and to recycle all we need to do. Yes, it may cost a bit more … the figures are still there to be determined on that,” he said.
With Cr Noel Cliff absent, the vote was tied with councillors Heenan, Cox, Dunn and McRae voting against the proposed lease and councillors Avery, Higgins, Templer and Warren voting for.
With Cr Warren’s casting vote, the ‘ayes’ had it.