More than 500 residents have made a last-minute plea to the Melton council, urging it to reject Boral’s application to expand its Ravenhall landfill.
Residents from across Melton and Brimbank met in Caroline Springs last Tuesday, with children as young as five saying they had stopped playing outside because of odours.
The council will consider the application tonight in what’s expected to be a fiery meeting.
Boral’s application, which seeks to extend its operations by 179,000,000 cubic metres, would, if approved, create one of the biggest garbage dumps in Australia.
Residents were last week urged to continue to lodge odour complaints with the Environment Protection Authority, also logging them on the Stop the Tip group’s website.
Last week, more than 7000 objections had been lodged with the council. About 11,000 signatures were on a petition presented to
State Parliament.
Stop the Tip campaigner Sean McAlpine-Jones said a rally would be held outside council’s Melton offices this evening.
He said he was confident the council would ‘‘make the right decision’’.
“Brimbank City Council has done an amazing job cleaning up the urban environment over the past decade. It would be a tragedy if Melton City Council allowed Boral to create the largest tip in Australia and undo all the good work achieved to date,’’ Mr McAlpine-Jones said.
“A stinking tip in our backyard is completely unacceptable under any circumstances.’’
Local MPs Cesar Melhem and Marlene Kairouz encouraged residents at last week’s meeting to continue their fight, saying the state government could have the final say.
A Boral spokesman has previously said the company was improving its gas extraction systems and had no immediate plans to increase the amount of waste it received.
Stop the Tip campaigners are calling on residents to join them in front of the council offices in Melton at 6.30pm.
