The Ravenhall landfill committee has been temporarily suspended following the chairwoman’s resignation.
Community groups are furious with landfill operator Cleanaway’s decision to put the committee meetings on hold while a planning application to expand the size and life of the landfill is being considered by a state government-appointed planning panel.
At a Melbourne Regional Landfill Community Consultation Group (CCG) meeting on May 26, the chairwoman, Jen Lilburn, announced her resignation from the post, citing “concerns about the extent to which the rules of engagement for these meetings were being observed”.
“[The chairwoman] said that she couldn’t work with the committee any more because we weren’t adhering to a code of conduct, which is absolute rubbish.”
A spokeswoman for Cleanaway said the company was close to appointing a new chairperson.
“Given the importance of having an independent facilitator to chair the CCG meetings, we made the decision to put them on hold until a new chair is appointed,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
But vocal campaigner and Stop the Tip member Marion Martin said she was concerned the current committee, of which she’s a member, would be dissolved because “we ask too many questions”.
“We continually put the questions back up, wanting to get the answers but we never do,” Ms Martin said.
“We’re on this committee to represent the community and that’s exactly what we’re doing. There were questions we wanted answered like [about] the methane leak that Cleanaway hadn’t reported immediately and other issues about leachate, but we weren’t given answers.
“We turned up at the meeting on Thursday [May 26] and everything seemed reasonable. Before anything else started [the chairwoman] said she wanted to make a statement … that she couldn’t work with the committee any more because we weren’t adhering to a code of conduct, which is absolute rubbish.”
Star Weekly understands current committee members will need to reapply for their positions on the Melbourne Regional Landfill CCG.
“At this point in time [with the planning application being considered], it’s very important that we have these meetings,” Ms Martin said. “It’s bad enough that we’re having these meetings every three months – we should be having them every month.”
Cleanaway said it was committed to keeping the community informed and urged anyone with queries in the meantime to email mrlcommunity@cleanaway.com.au
But social media users were quick to blast the company.
“If you have nothing to hide, answer the questions asked of you on [Facebook],” one user wrote.
