An online petition calling on the ACT Government to find alternate sites for two proposed waste processing facilities in Fyshwick has been lodged on the ACT Legislative Assembly website.
Principal petitioner and President of the Fyshwick Business Association, Rob Evans, said the association supported better resource recovery, but the impact of the proposed facilities was too high a price to pay.
“This is an industrial mixed used suburb and commercial businesses happily co-exist with industry, in fact that’s what appeals to people about the place, but the scale and type of activities in these two proposals is not compatible with what’s already here,” Mr Evans said.
“The volume of waste being proposed across the two sites is 1.4 million tonnes a year; that’s 40 percent more than the ACT’s total waste accepted at Mugga Lane – it’ll be like Mugga Lane on steroids.
“We don’t think Canberrans are really aware of that scale yet. Intuitively we hear the word ‘recycling’ and automatically think it’s a good thing. Once ACT residents understand the impacts, we believe they will share our concerns and petitioning is a time-honoured tradition for people to take their grievances to government.”
Mr Evans said the two sites were located less than one kilometre from homes, childcare centres, the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets, cafes, retail outlets and other businesses and members had concerns about the risk of odours, emissions, particulate matter and fires.
“One of the Association’s biggest concerns is the extra heavy vehicle traffic that will be generated. We know from their own traffic reports that these facilities will result in an extra truck movement every two minutes around the Ipswich Street site which will affect traffic heading up to Barrier Street and down to Canberra Avenue, and up to every 24 seconds for the Tennant Street site, which will absolutely choke that intersection outside Bunnings on the corner of Newcastle, Collie, and Barrier Streets.
“And many of these aren’t just your average garbage trucks, they’re 19-metre-long Kenworth T610s or similar with quad dog trailers carrying 30-40 tonnes of waste. Imagine navigating around those monsters every time you visit Fyshwick. People will just stop coming and that will be disastrous for businesses and jobs, at a time when we need to keep people employed.
“What we are saying to government is follow your own IZ2 precinct code and preserve and promote viable industries that can coexist with more commercially oriented uses. High volume waste processing is not compatible with the majority of businesses in Fyshwick, including other industry, but it’s the right thing to be co-locating at the ACT’s already established resource recovery estate at Hume.”
Sign the petition at: https://epetitions.act.gov.au/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetId=144&lIndex=-1
Media inquiries: Jane Seaborn 0414 829 282