Thursday the 10th of April 2025
South-eastern MP Rachel Payne has welcomed the Environmental Protection Authority’s decision to refuse the global waste giant, Veolia, a development licence for a waste transfer station (WTS) in the suburb of Hampton Park.
Ms Payne, from Legalise Cannabis Victoria said on four occasions in parliament she opposed the transfer station and was working with the community, because a mega WTS (processing 550,000 tonnes of rubbish a year) did not belong in a residential area.
However, Ms Payne noted that Veolia was taking the EPA to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Review on August 11, on the grounds of seeking to maintain ‘procedural fairness’ and the ‘approvals timeline’ for the development license.
“The EPA might have knocked back the development application, but this is not yet over,” Ms Payne said.
“The four-day VCAT hearing begins on 11 August, and needless to say the community is deeply invested in the outcome.”
Ms Payne said the proposed site was only 250 metres from houses, and state guidelines for such facilities specify a 500-metre buffer.
“This waste transfer station would bring odours, noise and an obscene number of heavy trucks – A-doubles – into the suburb,” she said.
“We don’t know what route the trucks would travel, but if they took the direct route literally hundreds of trucks would roll past five childcare centres, three aged care facilities, two churches and the local shops.
“There has been a landfill site in Hampton Park since 1997, but the residents of Hampton Park were told it would close by 2030 and be remediated into community parks and gardens.
“People bought houses on the government’s promise the landfill site would close but then in 2022 there was a change of plan – out of nowhere the Andrews government declared the site to be ‘an ongoing waste site of state significance’.”
Ms Payne noted that the EPA concluded that there was an ‘unacceptable risks to human health and the environment from the proposal, primarily from odour and noise emissions. Due to the close proximity of the proposed waste transfer station to residential homes and other sensitive receptors, EPA has determined that these risks cannot be reduced to acceptable levels.
“There were 751 submissions to the EPA about this proposal and around 748 opposed the construction of the facility,” she said.
“Four community groups have also been tireless in the fight to stop this development – the Lynbrook Residents Association, We Say No, Hampton Park Progress Association and Casey Residents Association. It has been a privilege to work with these community groups on the campaign opposing the Hamton Park Waste Transfer Station.”
