A Campbellfield construction company wants a tenfold increase in the number of trucks coming and going from a landfill site in Oaklands Junction.
Winslow Constructions is negotiating with Inglis horse sales to operate a landfill site on vacant land at Inglis’s 78-hectare complex at 285-315 Oaklands Road, Oaklands Junction.
The landfill business, which trades under the name Creative Landfill, was granted a permit last January to use the site for clean-fill purposes and grass seeding.
Hume council’s original permit stipulated that there was to be no more than 50 truck movements per day, with landfill operations restricted to Monday to Saturday between 8am and 5pm. The company wants this number to increase to 500 truck movements a day.
At a council meeting last Monday night, councillors upheld officers’ recommendations to cap truck movements to 280 per day.
Town planner Henry Dong said the proposed 500 truck movements was excessive and echoed the concerns of 11 objections submitted by adjoining owners and occupiers.
“Council’s traffic department suggested that it would be appropriate to limit the increase to 50 per cent of the existing large truck volume on Oaklands Road,” Mr Dong wrote in his report. This would equate to 14 extra truck movements per hour.
The Winslow site would be in a rural area that’s zoned green wedge. Holcim Australia operates a quarry across the road and truck movements are frequent. When a traffic survey was last conducted north of the quarry in July 2013, an average of 6161 vehicles passed daily, almost a quarter being trucks.
While the council gave Creative Landfill the green light to increase truck movements to 280 a day, this hinges on completion of the Craigieburn and Oaklands roads roundabout.
Construction of the roundabout is now under way and is due to be completed before the end of June. Winslow Constructions and Inglis were contacted for comment.
