Zoe Moffatt
The Sunbury community is calling for the state government to push ahead with the Bulla Bypass if it wants to keep processing and disposing spoil from Big Build and infrastructure projects at the Bulla Spoil Processing Facility.
The minister for planning recently wrote to Hume council for its views on changing the Hume Planning Scheme to allow the Bulla Spoil Processing Facility to process and dispose of spoil from Big Build projects and other infrastructure projects for another 24 years.
Currently, only spoil from Big Build is accepted at the site, an arrangement that was set to end on April 1.
Sunbury resident Ian Sutherland has previously voiced his concerns about Hi-Quality’s proposed growth, and said he is more concerned about how the waste is going to get to the facility.
“I think [waste] has to go somewhere and they appear to have enough room in the Hi-Quality tip to handle those,” he said.
“The traffic for that and more particularly the domestic waste trucks, which will be smelly as well… to [have] 400 [additional trucks] is going to be a big problem.
“The current routes all impact the community, so if they want to improve that situation they should build the Bulla Bypass.”
Mr Sutherland said the state government should pay for the road if it will help transport waste from state government infrastructure projects. Hume council is also calling for the Bulla Bypass to be built if this is to go ahead.
Upper house MP David Ettershank recently raised concerns about the expansion of the Hi-Quality’s Sunbury Eco-Hub in parliament and said “the west is the best but it gets so much less.”
Mr Sutherland said he agrees with that statement and said there are lots of issues in the west the state government is not addressing.
In response to concerns about the additional trucks and potential routes, a Hi-Quality spokesperson said several existing and approved B-Double truck routes through both Bulla and Sunbury are being considered.
“The final routes and truck volumes travelling on each would depend on where the waste is coming from, and who is supplying it. Exact routes would be determined closer to the commencement of operations,” the spokesperson said.
“HiQ understands that truck movements are a concern for the community. It recommends that truck movements are dispersed across several different approved routes and… distributed across operational hours to reduce truck movements during peak hours.”
The state government was contacted for comment.
