By ALESHA CAPONE
A BRIMBANK resident has expressed outrage that Sydenham Rd remains a dumping ground for illegal rubbish, more than 12 months after he originally called for the situation to be fixed.
In January last year, Star reported Sydenham resident Doug Nicholson had become fed up with items – including syringes, burnt-out cars and unwanted furniture – being regularly abandoned near the road.
He also said hoons had frequented the area since Sydenham Rd was closed to traffic at Taylors Rd for the construction of a grade separation in 2007.
In 2012, Mr Nicholson called on Brimbank City Council to set up CCTV cameras at the site, install ‘no dumping’ signs and re-open the road.
However, last week Mr Nicholson again contacted the council – and Star -and said the road was still in the same condition as last year.
“As you can see, nothing’s happened in 12 months and it’s just a dump,” Mr Nicholson said.
“All they’ve done is to put a sign up, saying Sydenham Rd is closed at Taylors Rd.
“There are plenty of burnout marks down there which are current.”
Mr Nicholson said erecting anti-dumping signs at the site would be “a great start” to improve the area.
Brimbank City Council’s general manager of infrastructure and environment, Paul Younis, said installing cameras on private or Federal Government property was not a council responsibility.
“In the next couple of weeks, council will, however, be closing off access to the southern end of Sydenham Rd via a temporary road closure, located some 25 metres south of the access to the Broadcast Australia site on Sydenham Rd,” he said.
“Signs, bollards, wire rope between the bollards and a gate will be installed, preventing access to the southern end of Sydenham Road and will hopefully reduce the incidence of rubbish dumping.”
He also said a proposal to realign Sydenham Rd through land owned by Broadcast Australia was “a matter to be addressed between VicRoads and Broadcast Australia”.
