By Laura Wakely
A TRANSPORT company keeping residents awake in Sunshine West has been given more time to build a sound wall.
In September last year the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) ordered Lindsay Transport Ltd to erect a wall before 20 December 2011, after residents complained noise, as loud as 90 decibels, issuing from the site could be heard in their homes.
Brimbank City Council received and granted a request for an extension of time to complete the construction of the wall by 29 February this month.
A second request for an extension of time – by 31 March – was also granted at a planning meeting last week.
If the request for more time had have been refused, the matter would go before VCAT, which Administrator Joanne Anderson said may not have been resolved for months, due to VCAT’s workload.
“It’s with a heavy heart I move this motion,” Ms Anderson said.
Council’s General Manager of City Development Stephen Sully noted in his report to council that Lindsay representatives thought March was “a more realistic completion date” because of “engineering issues” and delays in manufacturing components.
In the meantime, Lindsay agreed to position three shipping containers on site to block out some of the noise, but council officers said they had stacked just two containers on site.
Administrator Meredith Sussex said council would be “vigorous” in holding Lindsay to the agreement.
Resident Ken Mooney, who has lived near Vella Drive for 38 years, said he accepted the reasons council had granted the extra time but in the meantime would be putting up with noise levels of more than 60 decibels throughout his home in the middle of the night.
