Community groups fear they will lose the right to appeal against planning permits after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal excluded Western Region Environment Centre from a hearing on the expansion of a Wyndham tip.
VCAT last week ruled that WREC had no standing in the case because it was not directly affected by the council’s application to change a planning permit it had issued itself for the Wests Road landfill.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Post a comment below
The council applied to VCAT to change or cancel amendments made to the permit in 2010 and 2012, which allowed the landfill to be built to 65 metres and then 120 metres above ground.
The council wants to change the permit because it had been found that the amendments had not been properly advertised and were unnecessary because the original permit did not specify a height.
WREC applied to be part of the hearing so it could represent the concerns of residents who want the tip lowered to ground level.
Centre director Harry van Moorst said the decision to “strike out” WREC could have implications for other community groups.
“It has implications for any attempt to appeal against a planning permit a council has signed off on,” he said.
“If a community or church group wanted to protest against a gambling hall or brothel they could be excluded unless they are directly affected.”
A spokesman for Stop The Tip, a community group set up to fight the proposed expansion of Deer Park’s Boral landfill, said there were grounds for concern about the ruling.
“Stop The Tip believes that the community’s voice must always be heard, whether by councils, VCAT or the state government,’’ the spokesman said. ‘‘To ignore the views of residents would be completely unacceptable.”
But Monash University property law expert Pamela O’Connor said VCAT usually only allowed parties to be added to a hearing if it felt they would be affected by the proceeding or would be bound by, or have the benefit of, an order made by the tribunal.
