Brimbank council is calling on the state government for greater powers to combat waste management.
Following a month of community meetings, litter, waste management and rogue operators were identified as the top issues among residents, with mayor John Hedditch calling on the state government to introduce harsher penalties for offenders.
“Council is advocating strongly for the state government to support Environment Protection Authority Victoria to strengthen the policies, legislation and compliance systems that relate to waste management, litter control and contaminated land,” Mr Hedditch said.
“These are complex problems and we feel like we’re fighting with one hand behind our back. Councils lack the full powers to address these problems as effectively as we need to, because we have a totally inadequate set of tools to do the job.
“We want the EPA and councils to be granted more powers to crack down on dumping and contamination, and we want harsher financial penalties and sentences for these illegal behaviours.”
Brimbank council spent $700,000 collecting and disposing of illegally dumped waste in the 2015-16 year, with as much as $5000 spent every week in hotspot areas.
Roughly 3500 reports of rubbish or illegal dumping are received by council each year.
“Council is appealing to the state government to dedicate funds from the hundreds of millions of dollars in the Sustainability Fund towards developing this integrated action plan for waste management … including prioritising the clean-up of major dumping sites in the city,” he said.
“It is only fair that these sustainability funds, which are raised by local government contributions to the state government landfill levy, should be returned to local government to better resource action on these widespread problems.”
Council is reviewing its waste management plan to find a more effective solution to the litter problem in Brimbank.
