Special Dardanup council meeting to go ahead despite stalled Cleanaway applications

Dardanup shire councillors will still consider motions put forward by the community concerning Cleanaway’s development application at a special meeting despite the company placing its applications on hold last week.

Seven motions were tabled by concerned Dardanup residents at a special electors meeting last month and were to be considered alongside the applications at a special council meeting prior to the request.

The council’s engineering and development services director Luke Botica confirmed the meeting on April 16 would still go ahead.

“The purpose of this meeting is to receive the minutes of and consider decisions made at the Special Meeting of Electors held on March 20,” he said.

Dardanup Residents Association members say their position on proposed developments at the Banksia Road landfill site have not changed despite the applications being placing on hold.

Association committee member Jenny Trigwell said the association would not soften its stance as the applications would be tabled again in the near future.

“We are determined not to leave a legacy tip site of mammoth proportions in this beautiful, vulnerable and well populated part of the South West,” she said.

The company presented three development applications to be assessed by Dardanup councillors in December. As well as requesting the site could be operated 24/7, the company also wanted to remove restrictions concerning the class of waste it could accept and to construct a new leachate pond.

A request was made to put the applications on hold on Friday.

A Cleanaway spokesman said the company was reviewing its pending applications and was cognisant of feedback received from the community, shire officers and other stakeholders.

“We acknowledge we need to improve our engagement with the community,” he said.

“We are also considering our approach and what more we can be doing to better inform and consult the community.”

Mr Botica said that a new timeframe for processing the application would have to be agreed upon by the council and Cleanaway once the company decided to proceed.