A Greater Dandenong councillor has called for councillors to rejoin a community reference group (CRG) for the controversial Lyndhurst toxic waste landfill.
The potential backflip comes after councillors controversially voted to end their representation on the Taylors Road CRG, which meets four times a year.
Instead a council officer, on behalf of the council, was to continue to attend the meetings.
The move seemed at odds with Greater Dandenong’s long-held opposition to the landfill on health grounds.
At a 24 November council meeting, CRG community member Thelma Wakelam questioned if the council was ceasing to represent its ratepayers on the issue.
The landfill accepts all of Victoria’s prescribed industrial waste as well as the highest categories of hazardous materials, she stated.
“For this reason, the landfill is of state significance but it is situated near where many thousands of people live and work around Dandenong South.
“In 2025, this facility would never be approved to operate as it cannot meet best practice guidelines for buffer zones.”
Cr Rhonda Garad volunteered to join the CRG in an attempt to reverse the council’s position.
She had been listed as the nominated councillor for the group in 2024-’25, but says she wasn’t made aware of the posting or provided CRG meeting dates or minutes.
She said councillors had a different perspective than council officers, calling for an end date for the landfill.
“We should not have to take the toxic rubbish for the whole of Melbourne and people should not have to live next door to it.”
Chief executive Jacqui Weatherill said council officers had suggested withdrawing councillors from the CRG due to the group’s focus on “operational issues”.
If councillors wanted to restore their CRG representation, it wouldn’t cause concern to officers, she said.
“It’s about the fact that our councillors are very busy.
“It’s not changing our focus on the landfill in question and our concern about the landfill in question. We have had ongoing issues with the operator of that facility.”
In recent years, the tip’s operator Veolia has been subject to EPA fines and improvement notices for non-compliances at Taylors Road.
Veolia was also ordered by the Victorian Supreme Court to pay $1 million for breaches at its nearby Hallam Road landfill.
Cr Jim Memeti, who has campaigned against the landfill for 20 years, demanded to know how many times Veolia had been fined.
“We know Veolia should not be trusted. There should not be any breaches.
“When (the community) sees in the newspapers they’ve breached their conditions, they just do not feel safe.”
Wakelam raised concerns that Veolia may successfully apply to dispose toxic waste, instead of putrescible waste, in the last remaining cell at Lyndhurst landfill.
If successful, this could further extend the lifetime of the toxic-waste landfill, she stated.
A previous Labor State Government pledged to stop allowing toxic waste at Lyndhurst by 2020, but its time line is now being left to Veolia.
The tip has a potential to remain open beyond 2046, then-Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio told Parliament in 2019.
According to CRG minutes, Veolia stated it does not have a “sunset clause” for Lyndhurst landfill, and it depended on the market and what people sent to the landfill.
The site was taking markedly less waste than in the 1990s and that “the State Government has concerns about the site closing”, a Veolia representative told the meeting.
“Veolia is in discussions with the government regarding the need to build the final cell, Cell 21, because the state needs it for the reportable priority waste,” the minutes recorded.
