Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News 19 August 2020

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Chelsea • Mordialloc • Mentone

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Wednesday 19 August 2020

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Work underway on new freeway

WORK is continuing on the Mordialloc Freeway project. In the last week, work has been undertaken to install 5 kilometers of drainage pipes under the road. More than two million tonnes of fill has been sourced for the foundations of the road, and construction of bridge retaining walls at Old Dandenong Road has started. A third of the piling for the Waterways wetlands bridge has been completed. At least 371 retaining wall panels have been installed and at least 217 piles have been drilled. In late 2019, the state opposition blasted a “massive cost blowout” on the construction of the project. The mid year budget update from the state government had allocated another $148.2 million to the road project (“Bypass budget blowout blasted”, The News, 23/12/19). The nine kilometre road will link the Mornington Peninsula Freeway at Springvale Road in Aspendale Gardens to the Dingley Bypass in Dingley Village. The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year. Picture: Supplied

Final decision on recycling site imminent Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au THE planning minister is close to making a decision on the future of Alex Fraser Group’s Clarinda recycling plant, The News understands. The recycler’s permit to operate at the site expires in 2023, but it is applying to stay on until 2038. Kingston Council voted to refuse an extension to the permit last year, but the final decision will ultimately be made by

the planning minister. It is understood that an advisory committee appointed to assess the application will make a recommendation this week. The mayor Georgina Oxley has called for the company’s bid for a longer stay to be rejected. “The community, council and the government have all agreed that the Green Wedge is simply no place for an industrial waste facility,” she said. “The integrity of the Green Wedge and critically the planning system is at stake if this extension is granted.

Please minister, don’t trash our Green Wedge.” A statement from council reads that the recycling facility is inside a “Green Wedge A Zone” which “prohibits industrial uses including materials recycling and concrete crushing”. “Locals, environmentalists and Kingston Council have been long anticipating the end of the waste industry in the Green Wedge. But now the Alex Fraser Group has applied for a 15 year extension until 2038, which

would open the door to a permanent stay at the site,” Cr Oxley said. “Approving an extension for a concrete crusher would fly in the face of this government’s and the planning minister’s strong support for the Green Wedge. Protecting green wedges from inappropriate development has been a strong priority of council and the Victorian government and key to that is finally moving on industrial waste operations. “A permit extension is simply not needed to support the major projects

now underway and three years to relocate still gives the company plenty of time to find a suitable site for an industrial waste facility and plan for a smooth transition.” Alex Fraser Group managing director Peter Murphy hit back at Kingston Council, telling The News that “inaccurate statements” had been made. He said that the recycling facility makes a “positive contribution to the Green Wedge while operating”. Continued Page 3

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