Skye waste site in limbo

THE Skye waste transfer station has been closed until at least next April, leaving residents without a tip.

The saga began in February when the previous Frankston City Council-owned transfer station in Centenary Park Drive closed to make way for Peninsula Link.

Private operators Skye Sands and Veolia opened the new station in Harold Rd, but it became the subject of complaints about the cost of using it and the condition of the facility.

The site’s owner and managing director of Skye Sands, Rusty French, told Leader he feels the council has blamed him.

“According to many, I’m blamed for dragging my heels.”

Mr French said the problems started when the council ordered him to stop work on the site two weeks after plans were approved in October, 2009.

“I was told to stop work on November 6 because the landscape and environmental management plans hadn’t been approved and Harold Rd hadn’t been finished.

“But both those plans had been sitting on council officers’ desks for weeks, waiting for approval.

“And contractors couldn’t work on both Harold Rd and the site at the same time.”

Mr French said he was “threatened with a $140,000 fine” if he started work during this period, but he was then “forced” into partially opening the half-finished site on February 15, while the stopwork order was still in place.

“It would have opened on March 1 if we’d been left alone. Now it won’t be open until at least 12 months later - subject to weather and the availability of contractors.

“It was council who delayed this project, not me.”

Council chief George Modrich said there was “an obligation to enforce the planning requirements for the site”.

“Partial opening of the site was approved on the basis of certain works being completed by June 2010, which did not occur.”

Councillors voted last Monday to offer residents a trial at-call hard waste collection until February.

A council spokesman said costs were likely to be $80-$90 for the collection of 1.5-2 cubic metres of hard waste or bundled prunings, with the council subsidising one collection by 33 per cent.

Additional collections will be at full cost.