The No Sunbury Waste Incinerator group has taken its fights to stop a waste-to-energy facility being built in the town all the way to state parliament.
The group’s petition against the proposed incinerator at HiQ’s Sunbury Ecohub site on Sunbury Road was tabled in parliament on Tuesday 2 December.
The petition calls on the Legislative Council of Victoria to call on Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny to immediately halt any approval or progress towards building a waste incinerator in Sunbury, until the Economy and Infrastructure Committee’s inquiry into Waste to Energy is complete.
The petition gained 3264 signatures of residents concerned about the project, and gained support from Western Metropolitan MP David Ettershank.
Mr Ettershank said he was proud to bring the petition to parliament.
“We had (almost) three and a half thousand people who signed the petition which is calling for the government to not make any approvals on the Sunbury incinerator until after the inquiry into waste to energy has been completed and it’s terrific we’ve got a big response and we’re absolutely delighted by that,” he said.
“As it looks at the moment, this petition will be debated in the first week when parliament returns in the new year, which is a great way to start the new year.
“Sunbury is going to be a big campaign, it’s going to draw across the whole year and it’s going to end in August/September with the inquiry results being handed down, and we’re pretty excited about that.”
Mr Ettershank said he welcomes all Sunbury residents to come down to see the petition debated.
“We’ll let people know through the No Sunbury Waste Incinerator Facebook page and our own Facebook page and we welcome coming in and seeing what their politicians are up to,” he said.
The No Sunbury Waste Incinerator group thanked all residents, volunteers and local businesses who helped support the campaign and get signatures for the petition on their Facebook group.
As reported by Star Weekly, an application is expected to be lodged for the facility to the Environment Protection Authority Victoria by the end of the year.
