Barden Ridge
,
New South Wales
Message
As a long time resident of Barden Ridge, and employee at Ansto I wish to express my personal views of the proposal based on past exposure to the current Lucas heights waste site.
Under the proposal I agree with the recycling and resource recovery centre to improve operations and reduce waste volumes into the landfill. I also agree with energy production from the methane gas coming from the existing land fill. These aspects all make sense.
However I do not agree with increasing the landfill capacity and continuing to add to the existing problems with the site.
If the site was more remote from local residents, businesses and sporting facilities, then I would have no objections with the proposal. But given the close proximity to communities (less than 5 km from current housing, less than 2-3km from planned housing in Gandangarra stage 3, 1km from Ansto), then I must object to the expansion of the landfill. It simply doesn't make sense to add so much additional waste so close to residents.
The current site landfill already creates these problems:
- bad odour problems, especially in winter time mornings
- increased pests around the neighbourhood (ibis birds, crows, foxes, rats)
- runoff pollution after rain into the local creek running through a mountain bike park on local council land
- visually unattractive with "Mount Menai" dirt mounds
- impact on residential property values with many people not wanting to live that close to a major tip
Residents would consider these major impacts, even if Suez does not.
Local council has invested heavily in local infrastructure to improve the Barden ridge/Lucas heights/Menai neighbourhood (the ridge sporting complex, new mountain bike facilities adjacent to the current landfill), plus the state government has approved the Gandangarra stage 3 residential expansion close to the tip, but this landfill expansion detracts from that. All local residents property values will be affected by the increased landfill proposal, but this is not justified and unfair on residents.
The increased landfill component should be shifted to another site in Sydney further removed from local residents and ALL future Sydney housing developments - re future long term town planning like any good city. Be smart and take the hard but smart decision, not the lazy dumb decision.
The money allocated to the increased landfill should instead be spent on better recycling facilities and recycling education to reduce landfill requirements.