Coffs Council to find new tip site, sit down with rubbish contractors
While Councillors begin process to find new tip site and re-establish roundtable talks, ‘connoisseur’ of tip smells laments historic lack of progress.
Coffs Harbour
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Before Councillors made headway on the region’s troubled waste situation this week, Zeno Baston gave a powerful insight in to the “nightmare” of living next to the tip.
The 61-year-old fought back tears as he recounted how his wife, now suffering from ill-health, wanted to move away from the family home they have lived in for the last 41 years due to the intense odours.
“My full focus should be on her, and not trying to deal with extremely disappointing situations,” he said.
“(The issue) has always been about contract costs and disputes, never about the effect on nearby residents and their quality of life. It’s now time to turn the tables back in favour of the community.”
Mr Baston spoke against two motions before Coffs Harbour City Councillors on Thursday, expressing frustration at what he said was a historic lack of action from all parties involved.
But he also recognised he was somewhat conflicted on the proposals to reestablish the Regional Waste Strategy Reference Group and to progress a plan to find a new tip site.
Pointing to a folder jam packed with reports and correspondence he had collected over some 30 years from Council, the waste companies involved and the Environmental Protection Authority, Mr Baston said “the time has run out for meetings and reports”.
He called for councillors to “bite the bullet” and close the landfill “immediately” as well as conduct a full audit of the of landfill sites and related infrastructure and commence a health study on its effects.
He called himself a “wine connoisseur of odour”, such was his ability to identify the different smells emitted by the varying waste processes being conducted at the Englands Road facilities.
“We just want to live our lives on our farm – we should not have to be in situation where we feel we have to move somewhere else,” he said.
The issue has reached a crescendo in recent weeks, with the EPA reintroducing a waste levy and the horrendous stench making its way throughout Coffs Harbour, and Councillors didn’t take long to progress the two actions.
Cr Sally Townley said everyone was in agreement that an urgent meeting was needed and that all parties needed to get in a room together and “look each other in the eye and work out appropriate solutions”.
Handybin, Biomass Solutions and Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Nambucca Councils will now come together in an attempt to sort through the myriad waste issues concerning the region such as improving organic waste diversion, landfill capacity and future landfill options.
Council will also make representations to the NSW Government to identify a new tip site, with Cr Paul Amos’ making a point to include specific dates in the motion to ensure it held more weight and offer more certainty.
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