A Brimbank recycling company has been accused of hypocrisy for accepting a $500,000 government grant.
Speaking in State Parliament last week, Williamstown Labor MP Wade Noonan asked why Action Recovery and Recycling was happy to receive the grant to divert waste from going into landfill yet was unwilling to contribute to a Brimbank council scheme to seal Bunting Road, Brooklyn.
As reported by the Weekly on August 15, eight landowners facing a $1.8 million bill to tackle high levels of dust in the Brooklyn industrial precinct are taking the council to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal over the scheme.
Property owners have been asked to cough up between $654 and $364,360 each.
The owner of the Bunting Road land from which Action operates faces a bill of $328,437.
“Some in my community ask why known polluters should receive the benefit of taxpayer funds to support and grow their businesses, when those same polluters are hampering long-overdue pollution abatement works, such as the sealing of Bunting and Jones roads,” Mr Noonan said.
“This is an affront to our community and the environment, which for years has been exposed to excessive levels of pollution from the Brooklyn industrial precinct.”
But Sunshine Group general manager Christian Buxton, speaking on behalf of Action, said Mr Noonan’s claims were “wildly inaccurate”. “This has nothing to do with Action. They do not own the land,” he said.
“The majority of landowners in Bunting Road are not objecting to the road but to the individual amounts being levied and a number of unresolved issues with the design, which council has not been able to satisfactorily resolve.
“It’s common practice for owners to appeal to VCAT.”
An Environment Protection Authority spokesman said 29 pollution abatement notices had been issued in Brooklyn since the start of this month, with another nine expected before the end of the year.
Brimbank council infrastructure and environment manager Paul Younis said a VCAT hearing was expected to be held in the first quarter of next year.
