By NATALIE GALLENTI-BREKALO
MELTON and Brimbank residents are making their opposition to a proposed expansion of Boral’s landfill operation heard – loud and clear.
At last week’s meeting, Melton City Council revealed it had already received over 1700 objections in the past two weeks, with the number expected to grow rapidly.
The council’s planning and environment manager Bob Baggio said it appeared this was the largest number of objections ever for a single planning application within the City of Melton.
In November last year Boral lodged a planning amendment with Melton City Council to dramatically increase the size of the existing tip in Ravenhall to 179 million cubic metres, or the equivalent of 105 times the size of the MCG.
Planning and development general manager Luke Shannon said councillors were expected be briefed on the application within the next three weeks, however he doubted the application would come before the council in April.
Meanwhile, the future of the burnt-down Diggers Rest Hotel remains in doubt.
At last Tuesday’s meeting an application to demolish the derelict hotel was on the agenda, with a recommendation to reject the application.
However councillors unanimously decided to defer the application for no longer than three months, to hold ongoing discussions with the hotel owner.
