An attempt to overturn a controversial decision to allow expansion of the Ravenhall tip hangs in the balance.
Stop the Tip campaigners took their battle to the Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal on Friday for a preliminary conference with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
In June, Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne approved a planning permit for the expansion of the Melbourne Regional Landfill at Ravenhall to 93 hectares – less than half the size of the 211 hectares earlier proposed. There were almost 4000 objections to the original proposal and 103 individual submissions, including several that supported the expansion.
The EPA gave works approval for the expansion in March.
The Stop the Tip group, the driving force behind the campaign against the expansion, has claimed the environment watchdog had “let the west down”.
“With all the submissions made to the planning panel, we thought EPA wouldn’t have granted a works approval,” a spokesperson said at the time of the approval. “I think they’ve let the community down – they’ve let the west down.”
The group is now left waiting to find out whether VCAT will accept its right to appeal.
But some members feel the EPA is out to discredit the group.
One member who attended the preliminary hearing said the EPA referred to the Stop the Tip group as a “Trojan Horse”.
“They claim that they do not think our community really exists because we refuse to give them our meeting minutes,” the member posted on Facebook.
“EPA wants VCAT to discount Stop the Tip’s submission about our concerns with odour emitting from Cleanaway’s landfill because EPA does not believe that we are a real community. If our concerns, especially regarding odour, are made negligible then EPA will not have to deal with [them].”
The EPA was contacted for comment but did not reply by deadline.
If VCAT approves the Stop the Tip bid to appeal, an official hearing is scheduled for October. Brimbank and Melton councils have indicated in the past they also would fight the tip expansion at VCAT.
