Labor will set up an independent advisory committee to review new Boral application to expand Ravenhall tip if elected on November 29

LABOR will set up an independent committee if elected in November to review a new application from Boral to expand its Ravenhall tip.

The Melton/Brimbank community it celebrating Melton Councils decision to refuse Boral's application to expand its landfill. Marion Martin and Sean McAlpine Jones has spearheaded Stop the Tip campaign. Picture: Adam Elwood

LABOR will set up an independent committee if elected in November to review a new application from Boral to expand its Ravenhall tip.

Opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee announced in a media release this afternoon that a Labor Government would “use planning powers to ‘call-in’ Boral’s new application.”

An Independent Advisory Committee would review the application and hold public hearings to allow affected parties, including Boral, landowners and residents to make formal submissions.

It would then provide a formal report to the Planning Minister, who would make the final decision on the application.

Thousands of Melton residents have been involved in the Stop The Tip campaign and have been calling for a say.

Mr Tee said the committee would allow them to do so.

“…the decision about the future of the tip is open and transparent so everyone can have their say,” he said.

“A Committee will be able to consider a broad range of issues in assessing the application, including landfill capacity and demand, social, environmental and health impacts, and the need for effective buffers between the landfill and existing and future residential areas.”

Kororoit state Labor MP Marlene Kairouz said it was “fantastic news.”

“This announcement will ensure that the community has an opportunity to explain the very real impacts of the proposed landfill expansion, and to have those views considered in the assessment of the application,” she said.

- more to come.

THE STORY SO FAR:

■ 1998: Boral lodges an application to start a landfill at its Ravenhall quarry site

■ 1999: The application is approved and Boral opens its first landfill cell

■ July, 2013: An application to expand landfill operations is lodged with Melton Council

■ February, 2014: Stop the Tip campaign is formed, more than 500 residents attend a community meeting in Caroline Springs

■ March, 2014: Brimbank Council agrees to formally object to the application

■ April, 2014: About 400 residents attend a rally outside Melton Council offices

■ May 27, 2014: Melton Council rejects Boral’s application

■ July 22, 2014: Boral announced that it would not be appealing Council’s decision to VCAT, but would lodge a new application