by Sahar Foladi
Odour complaints, illegal dumping and other poor waste disposal is plaguing Springvale Activity Centre, according to a Greater Dandenong Council report.
Council officers reported also the inappropriate wash out of trucks and other material into council drains by meat and seafood businesses was leading to stench complaints.
The report was presented at the council meeting on Monday 24 March after the issues was first flagged at a council meeting on 9 December last year by councillor Sean O’Reilly.
Among the many primary contributors identified in the council report, one of the top contributors is potentially unknown illegal private sewer connections into the council’s drainage infrastructure.
Other contributors are contaminated recycling bins, littering and overflowing bins, cigarette butts, poor private waste collection and excessive amounts of single-use plastic bags.
According to O’Reilly, this is merely the first step into solving the issue as additional resources, funding and staff time will be required.
“Springvale shopping centre has some wonderful smells. But unfortunately there’s also other kinds that stink.
“My view and Council’s view is that we eliminate the practices leading to the bad smells so that the great smells of the Springvale Market are most prominent.
“The report is a good first step in identifying and how we can work in the future.
“It’s not going to happen overnight but hopefully it will happen.”
He says the council is looking at a long-term solution of getting rid of the loading zone on Balmoral Avenue laneway and the Multicultural Place shopping area and replacing it with an extension of Multicultural Place.
However, the project is “quite a few years away” from reality as it’s subject to State and Federal funding. It’s considered too late to be part of Council’s advocacy priorities this federal election but an option for the State elections in October 2026.
“The idea is you have these things ready, planned, consulted ready to go and all of a sudden, particularly for federal and state elections, we can have them tip into it,” O’Reilly said.
“A lot of the times we found before elections, they want to fund things that are ready to go so they can announce it and know exactly what they’re funding.
“So that’s the reason why we’re getting it ready to go now even though it’s dependent on council rates funding and there’s nothing on the long-term financial plan yet.”
However, he says the upgrade is not his top priority, which is instead the two main “brakes on growth” in Springvale – cleanliness and congestion.
“There’s so much going for it. People love it, they want to come, but they say they won’t go because it’s too hard to find parking or maybe due to smell.”
In the meantime, he proposes a potential solution of reviewing council policy to potentially use the area’s CCTV for environmental health enforcement.
Under its existing policy, the council is not allowed to use the CCTV as an enforcement strategy.
The council report also recommends continuing to educate businesses to better manage the issue at hand.
The Multicultural Place upgrade is out for community feedback on the council website until Sunday 13 April.
A selection of ideas include better placed street furniture, public art installations, flexible outdoor dining and improved precinct sustainability including the use of smart technologies.
