At long last a decision has been made: Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale locals will be getting their waste transfer station back again … sort of.
A sliver of land which housed the skip bins previously will eventually be reopened after the land is remediated and the shire gets the tick of approval from the state government.
Three skip bins will initially be allocated for green waste, two for hard waste and one for metal recyclables (with six more in reserve). And locals will get two free passes each year to use the tip.
As a concession to those who prefer verge collections, councillors opted to keep those in place as well, as a way to cater to the “diverse needs of the shire”.
And more of the Watkins Rd site could gradually be reopened, as needed.
But what became clear from the hour-long debate and the patchwork alternative resolution that was unanimously adopted, is that this ‘solution’ is not a full stop at the end of the 18-month long WTS saga. It is more of an ellipsis; or an elaborate band-aid, albeit one applied out of necessity.
And Deputy President Tricia Duggin was initially hesitant to support it, worrying that it was trying to be all things to all people and not addressing one waste component (like green waste) more comprehensively – in other words, kicking the can down the road for future councils to sweat over. “What we’ve been through over these past 18 months I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” she said.
And shire officers have warned that the reopened Watkins Rd site may run out of space in a few decades when the population triples.
But when the Examiner asked Shire President Rob Coales what his thoughts were, he said:
“Unequivocally, we did the right thing last night.”
“We need to be flexible in our approach. We need to balance the fact that we are fast-growing with what the community needs at the moment,” he said.
“Option 4 [the one chosen] gives us the ability to pivot. It gives us an option to do something quickly now, and it gives us the option to explore other paths down the track.”
But the shire does not currently have any alternative locations. President Coales is reticent to use the sizeable shire-owned Lampiter Drive site because it is a “strategic” plot that he believes lends itself better to lifestyle blocks and equine facilities.
And while there’s lots of land to be made available in West Mundijong, the shire currently does not have the funds to purchase it.
Those in the public gallery at Monday’s meeting were generally sceptical about whether this temporary fix at Watkins Rd was even workable.
One person referenced the previously long line of cars queuing at the tip on a Sunday waiting to dump their (mostly) hard waste into one of 20 skip bins provided.
We asked the president whether he seriously believed two skips (or even eight with the proposed back-ups) would be enough to cater for demand when the WTS reopens.
“It is enough at the moment,” he said, noting that there were no bookable hard waste verge collections when the WTS was open previously.
“And that’s something that we’ll monitor and manage. Because there is a real concern that a lot of people are very excited about the waste transfer station being open again. It might well be the biggest opening since Optus Stadium.”
He also said that the WTS was not ‘policed’ before, with anecdotal evidence of commercial operators from outside the area dumping their waste there unchecked. This, he said, will be rectified.
There are two obvious burning questions that weren’t answered this week: ‘When will the gates actually open again?’, and ‘How much is this solution going to hurt ratepayers?’.
President Coales was unable to shed any light there.
“I think it’s very, very dangerous to put a time on it,” he said.
“We’re beholden to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to give us a licence.”
But according to Talis, who were contracted to design the options for the tip, the rehabilitation planning, works and approval could take 11 months.
And the impact on rates this year?
“I don’t know a specific dollar amount per household. That will come through the budget process, which begins from next month,” President Coales said.
“We’re certainly cognisant of the cost-of-living and we’re very, very aware of keeping those rates as low as possible.”
In August last year, shire officers revealed that ratepayers would be whacked with rate increases to pay for whichever option was eventually chosen.
“With approximately 14,000 households [in the shire], an increase of every $1million to the budget, increases the amount to be levied in the Waste Fee by $71.42,” they said.
Shire officers estimated that a partial reopening, with verge collections and development of another site to manage the shire’s drainage spoils would set the shire back $3.3 million per year for the next ten years. So, by their own figures, there could be an extra $230 to pay per household, each year for the next decade.
The option chosen on Monday was a modified version of this, so Cr Coales has said this figure is not reliable. But The Examiner believes it gives a decent enough ballpark figure.
It’s clear even from initial reactions in the community that the “biggest issue” in the shire will continue to cause pain for many years to come.
But to give credit where credit is due, the councillors have worked diligently together to find a quick fix to an impossible situation that is likely to appeal to the greatest number of people.
Read previous articles about the tip saga:
- Asbestos Nightmare for SJ
- ‘No conspiracy theory’ in tip shutdown
- Shire faces whopping Waste Transfer Station bill
- “We don’t even have an effing tip” Council turns to residents to solve waste dilemma
- Is this the end of SJ’s tip?
