By JESSE GRAHAM
OPPOSITION is growing to moves to close Healesville’s Waste Transfer Station, with the mayor of Yarra Ranges and Healesville Action Group members speaking out.
A report reviewing operations at the Healesville and Wesburn tips, with a proposal to close down Healesville’s tip by 14 February 2015 has been tabled for tonight’s council meeting.
The closure is being recommended due to a drop in usage of the Healesville tip compared with Coldstream.
However, visitation was up by around 800 visitors in 2013 compared with the year before. A total of 3824 tip visits were recorded in 2013 compared to 3084 from 16 February-31 December 2012.
Coldstream experienced a major surge in use, with 23,068 visits recorded from 16 February-31 December 2012 compared to 56,753 in 2013.
The council report states that closing the tip by 2015 and ending its contracts with Knox Transfer Station Pty Ltd would save the council around $900,000 over the coming seven years, with more savings to follow.
Yarra Ranges Council’s Director of Environment and Engineering Mark Varmalis said the proposal for closure stems from a number of factors.
“The closure is being proposed due to low visitation numbers, increased operating costs and the availability of better facilities at nearby waste transfer stations where residents can take a greater range of recyclable waste for free,” he said.
However, Mayor Fiona McAllister said she will be speaking “very loudly against any closure” at the meeting, and said she doesn’t support the proposal to close at all.
Cr McAllister said the argument underlying the proposal to close the tip is finding cost effective ways to run the council, but she maintained that services should not be cut from the community in favour of reducing costs.
“I think that every service we provide, from libraries to waste removal will have costs associated with it,” Cr Allister said.
“Ultimately, we provide services that will always cost money – none of our waste services are cost neutral.
“To simply say that there are costs associated so we shouldn’t run it is an irrational, insufficient argument to me.”
Two options are set out for the council meeting – to close down the Healesville tip as of 14 February 2015 while reducing Wesburn’s opening hours to four days a week, or to keep current services as they are, provided that visitor numbers don’t drop below current levels.
However, the councillors are able to move alternate motions on the matter, offering different outcomes and conditions.
If the option for closure in 2015 is endorsed by the council, the public will be notified by notices at the tip and at the council’s Community Link buildings and have four weeks from the meeting date to enter submissions.
Healesville Action Group (HAG) member John Awin criticised the council for not allowing sufficient notice to the community that the matter would be discussed at council, with the agenda and items posted six days before the meeting.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s such a short time frame,” he said.
“I didn’t know anything about it, and I usually keep a fairly close eye on the agenda.
“It seems to have come rocketing out of right field.”
Mr Awin said that access to the tip had been difficult for residents in recent years, due to it only opening on weekends and users faced increasing costs. But he said that losing the facility completely would have a negative impact on the town.
Both Cr McAllister and Mr Anwin said they believe a closure of the tip would result in residents dumping their rubbish or burning it illegally, rather than them driving the 16 kilometres to Coldstream to dispose of it properly.
The council’s report states that rising costs at the tip were a result of the EPA Landfill Levy increasing from $9 per tonne of waste in the 2009-2010 financial year to $53.20 per tonne in 2013-2014.
The levy will increase to $58.50 per tonne for the 2014-2015 year.
Cr McAllister said the council should, in her opinion, look at ways to increase use of the tip and improve the efficiency of the service, rather than removing it.
“I think there are other options that aren’t being looked at,” she said.
Taking recyclables to any tip is free-of-charge, and 1103 people used this service at the Healesville tip in 2013, compared to 2041 at Wesburn and 14,431 in Coldstream.
For the result of Tuesday night’s council meeting, visit mail.starcommunity.com.au.
