New Wanless waste legal case against Ipswich City Council set to cost ratepayers millions

An Australian company is set to cost ratepayers millions after an appeal was recently lodged in court against the Ipswich City Council.

After Ipswich councillors voted against a $50m controversial waste development at Ebenezer, Wanless lodged an appeal with the Planning and Environment Court.

Wanless' Ipswich plans for the Ebenezer site. Picture: Supplied

Wanless plans to turn a decommissioned coal mine into landfill and build one of the nation’s largest recycling centres, although environmental risks were flagging during the application phase.

Multiple appeals launched by waste companies against the council exhausted the council’s 2020-21 budged by August, which had originally allocated $2.6m for legal fees.

Mayor Teresa Harding said the unfortunate outcome of the appeal, like any other, would be at a significant cost to ratepayers.

“We are committed to setting the terms for a waste industry that brings the benefits of the circular economy to our residents, without impacting our quality of life,” Mayor Harding said.

“To date, Council has paid more than $6 million in legal expenses on appeals and this figure will rise.

“It is disappointing this money has had to be spent defending Council’s original decisions instead of delivering community services, programs and infrastructure.

“While I cannot talk to the specifics of the application as it’s now with the courts, this decision was supported by eight of our nine elected representatives and was in line with our strategic vision for the future of waste in Ipswich.”

(Left) Veteran Ipswich councillor Paul Tully who was the only councillor to back the new waste facility and (right) Wanless boss Dean Wanless. Pictures: Supplied

Before making the decision, the council sided with the Independent Development Review Panel’s recommendation for a partial refusal of Wanless’s application.

The council refused the component of the application to do with the landfill and rehabilitation of a mining void and approved the application for the recycling centre.

Before legal action was taken, Mayor Teresa Harding said the council was moving away from a dependency on landfill and the application didn’t align with the council’s current planning and policy framework.

“(The project) raises environmental risks which have not been adequately addressed in this application. The base of the proposed landfill will ultimately sit below the groundwater table which leaves the potential of harmful substances seeping through the baseline,” she said.

“My view is that approving a new landfill in Ipswich is not in the interest of council, the community or our environment.”

The fastest growing city in Queensland created 107,700 tonnes of waste in the 2019-20 financial year, which is expected to rise to more than 175,000 tonnes by 2031.

As part of the 10-year Resource Recovery Strategy, the council plans to decrease landfill waste by 95 per cent and increase recycling by 70 per cent.