The Dandy Premix site looking west-east from the highway. The company proposes to expand and deepen its current pit and open a new pit in the wooded area at the top of the map. Photo: Google Earth
By Neil Rankine
BASS Coast Shire Council will be letting down its community if councillors accept a defeatist report on an application by Dandy Premix to massively expand its Grantville sand quarry.
The report by council officers does not reflect recent policies or resolutions adopted by the council or community concerns around sand mining.
Councillors will consider the report at next Wednesday’s council meeting before “adopting a position” which will become a submission on council’s behalf at a planning panel hearing into Dandy Premix’s application.
The application drew 73 objections from Grantville residents concerned about dust, noise and traffic and from others concerned about the loss of a vital biolink.
BASS Coast Shire Council will be letting down its community if councillors accept a defeatist report on an application by Dandy Premix to massively expand its Grantville sand quarry.
The report by council officers does not reflect recent policies or resolutions adopted by the council or community concerns around sand mining.
Councillors will consider the report at next Wednesday’s council meeting before “adopting a position” which will become a submission on council’s behalf at a planning panel hearing into Dandy Premix’s application.
The application drew 73 objections from Grantville residents concerned about dust, noise and traffic and from others concerned about the loss of a vital biolink.
At the request of the company, the application was called in by the Planning Minister, Richard Wynne, and will be considered by a Planning Panels hearing starting on March 22.
Although the council lost the right to decide on the application, the position it adopts next week will be vital evidence at the hearing. It should reflect council policies and resolutions.
Although the council lost the right to decide on the application, the position it adopts next week will be vital evidence at the hearing. It should reflect council policies and resolutions.
| In December, councillors voted unanimously in support of two motions that spell out multiple community concerns around the expansion of quarrying between Lang Lang and Grantville. The first motion related to the Dandy Premix application and noted it would remove the only piece of north-south woodland available to fauna to move between The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve and the Grantville Bushland Reserve. | Council digs in on state's grand sand plan December 12, 2020 - Mining and environmental tourism a bad mix, councillors decide. Minister steps into mining stoush November 27, 2020 - Planning Minister calls in a controversial application for a Grantville sand mine expansion. |
The motion noted this was at odds with the council’s Biodiversity Biolinks Strategy 2018 and the Planning Minister’s declaration of Bass Coast as a Distinctive Area Landscape.
None of this is reflected in the council officer’s report, nor are the community’s concerns.
The report deals strictly with what’s in the planning scheme – and there’s the problem.
It notes the Biodiversity Biolinks Plan 2018 is an important policy in guiding revegetation and biodiviersity outcomes but is not a reference document or an incorporated document in the Bass Coast Planning Scheme.
It appears the officers did not ask for direction and the CEO did not offer it.
Council CEO Ali Wastie needs to direct her officers to consider other policies that have been adopted by the council, including the Biodiversity Biolinks Strategy 2018 and the Climate Change Action Plan 2020.
If a policy has been adopted, it should be considered in making planning decisions regardless of whether it has yet been included into the planning scheme. It does, after all, represent community desire and expectation.
Given that Dandy Premix proposes to quarry up to 75 metres below sea level, our council should also be considering the Marine and Coastal Policy which applies to sites within 5km of Western Port.
At their December meeting, councillors authorised council officers to investigate whether Dandy Premix had met the conditions of its original permit, issued in 2013, under which the company agreed to ongoing replanting of the site, including replicating the wildlife corridor.
Those agreements have clearly not been met. and yet the council report merely reiterates the company line: The applicant has conceded that they have not achieved this establishment. This has been hampered, in part, by unfavourable seasonal conditions with the initial attempts at revegetation failing. A number of alternate approaches to the revegetation of the site have been trialled and replanting has been undertaken.
The excuse is ludicrous: the past five years have seen some of the best growing conditions for revegetation in Bass Coast in living memory.
The report seems to suggest that the main object of revegetation is to screen any view of sand mining operations from the highway rather than to provide habitat for flora and fauna.
Of the company’s attempt to replace the Section 73 agreement between the council and Dandy Premix with an agreement under the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, the report states: “Council does not currently have the resources to effectively monitor or enforce this agreement.”
One would have to ask why they want to wash their hands of any compliance responsibility.
Council policies reflect our community’s vision – they should not be ignored just because they are inconvenient or because of planning department resources limits.
Our community is gearing up to try to protect the remnant Western Port coastal forest from an influx of sand mining companies, encouraged by the State Government to secure sand for Melbourne’s urban expansion.
So far our councillors have backed the community. On Wednesday, I and many others will be watching to see whether they reject this defeatist report and stand firm.
The Dandy Premix application is the forerunner of many to come. The State Government, the sand mining industry – and the community – will all be watching to see whether our council can hold its nerve.
If you care about this issue, phone or email your local councillor.
Neil Rankine is a former mayor of Bass Coast. He is a member of Save Western Port's Coastal Forest.
None of this is reflected in the council officer’s report, nor are the community’s concerns.
The report deals strictly with what’s in the planning scheme – and there’s the problem.
It notes the Biodiversity Biolinks Plan 2018 is an important policy in guiding revegetation and biodiviersity outcomes but is not a reference document or an incorporated document in the Bass Coast Planning Scheme.
It appears the officers did not ask for direction and the CEO did not offer it.
Council CEO Ali Wastie needs to direct her officers to consider other policies that have been adopted by the council, including the Biodiversity Biolinks Strategy 2018 and the Climate Change Action Plan 2020.
If a policy has been adopted, it should be considered in making planning decisions regardless of whether it has yet been included into the planning scheme. It does, after all, represent community desire and expectation.
Given that Dandy Premix proposes to quarry up to 75 metres below sea level, our council should also be considering the Marine and Coastal Policy which applies to sites within 5km of Western Port.
At their December meeting, councillors authorised council officers to investigate whether Dandy Premix had met the conditions of its original permit, issued in 2013, under which the company agreed to ongoing replanting of the site, including replicating the wildlife corridor.
Those agreements have clearly not been met. and yet the council report merely reiterates the company line: The applicant has conceded that they have not achieved this establishment. This has been hampered, in part, by unfavourable seasonal conditions with the initial attempts at revegetation failing. A number of alternate approaches to the revegetation of the site have been trialled and replanting has been undertaken.
The excuse is ludicrous: the past five years have seen some of the best growing conditions for revegetation in Bass Coast in living memory.
The report seems to suggest that the main object of revegetation is to screen any view of sand mining operations from the highway rather than to provide habitat for flora and fauna.
Of the company’s attempt to replace the Section 73 agreement between the council and Dandy Premix with an agreement under the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, the report states: “Council does not currently have the resources to effectively monitor or enforce this agreement.”
One would have to ask why they want to wash their hands of any compliance responsibility.
Council policies reflect our community’s vision – they should not be ignored just because they are inconvenient or because of planning department resources limits.
Our community is gearing up to try to protect the remnant Western Port coastal forest from an influx of sand mining companies, encouraged by the State Government to secure sand for Melbourne’s urban expansion.
So far our councillors have backed the community. On Wednesday, I and many others will be watching to see whether they reject this defeatist report and stand firm.
The Dandy Premix application is the forerunner of many to come. The State Government, the sand mining industry – and the community – will all be watching to see whether our council can hold its nerve.
If you care about this issue, phone or email your local councillor.
Neil Rankine is a former mayor of Bass Coast. He is a member of Save Western Port's Coastal Forest.