Michaela Meade
Two applications for recycling stations in Campbellfield have been knocked back by Hume council because they lacked “basic” information about the storage of waste materials.
Councillors voted to reject the applications for 17-23 Bancell Street and 21-23 Glenbarry Road at a council meeting late last month.
Council officers had recommended both applications be refused because they contained inadequate information, including consistent details of how each site would operate, and of appropriate stormwater systems.
The Bancell Street application was for a materials recycling and transfer station. Council said the applicant had not provided details of the materials to be managed on site and how they would be managed.
The Glenbarry Road application related to materials recycling associated with the storage, bailing and distribution of tyres.
Council said the applicant had not provided details of where tyres will be stored, and fire risk management.
Councillor Naim Kurt said the community had seen enough blazes from recycling stations in recent years.
“The community in Campbellfield sadly knows the horrors of inappropriate storage of waste materials all too well,” Cr Kurt said.
“Most concerning for me is the lack of information about the management and storage of combustible recyclables and waste materials, and as noted with previous waste fires in Hume, we simply just can’t allow something like this to go ahead unless we have [relevant] information.”
Cr Kurt said there needed to be an avoidance of repeat scenarios like a fire at Bradbury Industrial Services in Campbellfield in April 2019, and a tyre fire on Maygar Boulevard in Broadmeadows in January, 2016, both of which blanketed parts of Hume in smoke.
Cr Karen Sherry said the council takes its commitment to the health and safety of residents seriously, and that it was concerned that “basic” information had not been provided by the applicants.
