Council takes time to smell the roses

The City of Sydney Council has resolved to withdraw the development of a 24-hour waste depot following the relentless opposition of residents and accusations of a conflict of interest in the matter.

The decision was made at Monday night’s Council meeting and was met with relief and applause from both the councillors and the overlooking residents.

The Council was both the applicant and the approval authority for the depot in Dunning Avenue, Rosebery, however Councillor Di Tornai said the Council’s independent assessor, Maria Zannetides, showed there was no conflict of interest.

Cr. Tornai welcomed the withdrawal of the application and the “passage of time” it left for the council to re-evaluate its options.

Spokesperson for the Rosebery Residents Action Group, Graeme Grace, received 1,100 signatures against the plan and said the decision was a welcome surprise.

“We submitted an options paper to council some time ago, recommending a compromise where most the council’s depot services could be accommodated in Rosebery and we remain committed to working with Council towards a fair outcome for all,” Mr Grace said.

Residents opposed the proposal on grounds of noise, smell and heavy trucks moving in the area at all hours. They had obtained legal advice from a barrister, Andrew Pickles, which claimed deficiencies in the proposal could give them grounds to sue the council had they have approved the project.

Local resident and spokesperson for the Rosebery Residents Action Group, James Lidis, said there were grave doubts about whether the council’s application was fair on its merits.

“Because it’s the Councils own application there is a higher level of the apprehension of bias, you’re a public authority and you’re judging your own application that means there’s more expected of you,” he said. “You just can’t be reckless with the way you’re dealing with things.”

Councilor Shane Mallard, who showed support for the withdrawal a week earlier, said there had been a lot of money wasted in the process.

“How on earth did we get to this point?” he said. “We should have been asking ourselves these hard questions much earlier.”

The council bought the site in 2007 in an area that is zoned industrial, yet lining the opposite side of the street are houses and apartments are being built to accommodate for the rising population in the once-industrial area south of the CBD.

The Lord Mayor Clover Moore said there is still a need for Council to find a waste facility to service a growing community.

“Why did we embark on this project? Well a service depot was needed and it was Council’s responsibility to provide one for the community,” Ms Moore said.

“In light of the circumstances, we had to step back.”