Objection to Erection & Operation of Waste /Resource Transfer Station

Ron and Carol Dowd
158 Hawthorne Road
Bargo NSW 2574

18 October 2012

General Manager

Wollondilly Shire Council
64 Menangle Road
Picton NSW 2570

council@wollondilly.nsw.gov.au

 Objection to – 010.2012.00000336.001 – proposed Erection & Operation of Waste/Resource Transfer Station, Resource Recovery Facility, Truck Depot, Ancillary Facilities, Off-Site Road Works, Transfer of Crown Road to Council, 25 Government Road, Bargo.

We refer to the above advertised development application and object to the proposal as follows:

 Zone Objectives

1.  The application does not address all of the relevant zones zone objectives which the development relates. The Resource Recovery Facility (the “facility”) is on land zoned RU1. We object to the notation that the facility supports primary production, rather it for the sorting of urban waste.
2. The operation of the facility and its associated reliance on the large, voluminous, noisy and odorous waste and other heavy vehicles travelling through adjoining residential zones will result in land use conflict.
3. The following development and associated zone objectives are not addressed in statement of environment effects: The proposed construction crown road is zoned RU2, Great Southern Road and Wellers Road upgrades on land zoned RU 4, Wellers Road Rail Bridge is zoned SP2.

 Planning Agreement

1. We object that notice of the proposed planning agreement has not been given “contemporaneously” or as soon as practicable after notice of the development application, as required by the Act. As such there is no opportunity to comment on the detail of the agreement with the development application fresh in one’s mind, as intended by the Act.
2. We object to a section in the statement of environmental effects alluding to a planning agreement being offered at some unfixed point in the future as this is uncertain. What’s more we do not consider the items offered as being of “material public benefit”. Rather they amount to compliance with development consent condition or obeying littering laws.

 Transport Routes

1.   The application makes mention of waste and other heavy vehicles being directed to travel on specific routes. We object to this it can be no more than a motherhood statement. Should such a condition to restrict registered vehicles be lawful, it would be unenforceable. Contractors and third parties accessing the facility may use any residential road, making such route management implausible and unrealistic.
2. Vehicles utilising the facility, either going or coming, from the south would pass through school zone for Bargo Primary School, either on Great Southern Road or Hawthorne Road School zones, we consider this unacceptable on safety grounds.

 Road Traffic Noise

1.  The application does not fully address the impacts or effects of road traffic noise from vehicles, traveling to and from the facility, on adjoining roads.

 Environment, Social, and Economic Impacts

1.   We consider that the employment of 10 people at the facility is insignificant when weighed against the loss of amenity, rural character and the feeling of safety in our community, which we currently enjoy.

Yours sincerely,

Ron and Carol Dowd

caroldowd@bigpond.net.au