THE Alex Fraser Group has asked Kingston Council for a 10 year extension to their permit to operate their site in Clarinda.
A brochure delivered by the Alex Fraser Group to council, seen by The News, read that “on current projections, there is simply no way that Alex Fraser will be able to find a suitable alternative location for this facility and have it ready for operation by 2023, when the current permit expires.”
“While Alex Fraser believes that the ultimate relocation objective can still be achieved, an extension of operations at the current site is required to avoid interrupting the critical supply of around 1 million tonnes per annum of recycled construction material,” the group said.
“Alex Fraser is seeking support from Council to help secure an extension to its current permit while it seeks, and migrates to, an alternative site in Melbourne’s south-east. Alex Fraser has been working assiduously with the relevant Government agencies to try and identify a possible alternative site.”
The proposal put forward by Alex Fraser gives council the option to terminate the planning permit with five years notice in 2028. The proposal states that if “notice to terminate is not exercised before 2033, Kingston Council has option to purchase Alex Fraser site for $1.”
A 15 year permit was granted to the Alex Fraser Group in 2008, with an exit date of 2023 targeted.
The Alex Fraser Group made a push for a 15 year licence extension in late 2014, but they faced unanimous opposition from the previous Kingston Council. That move was eventually blocked when planning minister Richard Wynne announced Green Wedge land north of Kingston and Heatherton Rds would be rezoned from Special Use, allowing waste businesses, to a Green Wedge A Zone (‘Time to take out the trash in Green Wedge’, The News, 21/10/15).
The mayor at the time Cr Geoff Gledhill said “council will continue to work proactively with Alex Fraser on transition plans during the remaining eight years of its existing permit, which expires in 2023, as we are very mindful of the importance of sustainable resource recovery.”
After the land was rezoned to a Green Wedge A Zone, Cr Gledhill said landfill sites will be “rehabilitated and ultimately turned into public parkland for the chain of parks.”
As of two weeks ago Kingston Council had not received any official application from Alex Fraser.
Council earlier this month splashed $2.6 million on two properties inside the Green Wedge in Clarinda for “potential use as parkland”. Kingston mayor Georgina Oxley said the Clarinda land would “become a significant regional park within Kingston’s Green Wedge and a key link in Council’s long-planned Chain of Parks project.”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 27 February 2019