KINGSTON Council is calling on the planning minister to intervene to move Alex Fraser Group out of their Clarinda recycling site by 2023.
The recycler’s permit to operate is valid until December 2023. They had hoped to extend it until 2038, but had that move rejected by council late last year (“Council agrees to take out the trash”, The News, 27/11/19).
The mayor Georgina Oxley said last week that the decision to reject the recycler a longer permit had been appealed to VCAT. She urged the planning minister to step in.
“Protecting green wedges, which are the lungs of our city, has been a strong priority of council and the Victorian government and key to that is finally moving on industrial waste operations,” Cr Oxley said.
“Council’s planning policies could not be clearer about the future of this area, and what is really at stake regarding this application is the credibility of the planning system.
“Alex Fraser were given eight years notice to find a new location, and still have until 2023 before their permit expires. The company should observe the planning scheme and focus on finding a suitable site in an industrial area for its long term future. Because its future is not in the Green Wedge.
“The safeguarding of Melbourne’s green wedges is far too important to be left to VCAT and we call on the planning minister to call in the application and act in the best interests of the environment, our community and the integrity of the planning system.”
The Alex Fraser Group circulated a letter to Clarinda residents late last year pitching their case for a longer stay. The letter, signed by Alex Fraser Group director Peter Murphy, read that if the site is shutdown “Victoria’s recycling crisis would worsen, with more materials which could be recycled potentially going to landfill (“Recycler pitches longer stay”, The News, 13/11/19).”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone New – 19 February 2020
