By Alesha Capone
A Tarneit mother says roadworks and construction sites near her house are generating so much dust she cannot open windows or hang out washing.
Lydia lives on a Davis Road service lane, near Hummingbird Boulevard and Lamington Drive and said the issues with dust began about two years ago. She said there were also “massive dirt piles” on a vacant block near Davis Road which contributed to the issue.
She said that although she knew there was a lot of development occurring in the area when she moved in, she would “never” have bought the house if she had known about the dust.
Lydia said although she regularly cleaned, the dust was a constant problem.
“We haven’t hung washing outside for two years and we just don’t open the windows, even on non-windy days,” she said.
“You can see the road outside is red, the footpath is red, the house is red, from the dust.”
She said in the past two years, her children had developed bad hay fever, asthma and an oral allergy syndrome which she believed twas caused by the dust.
Lydia said she had contacted both Wyndham council and the state Environment Protection Authority about the dust, but “no one cares”.
Wyndham council’s director of city operations Stephen Thorpe said the council had received two complaints from residents last year, in relation to dust and noise in the Davis Road area.
“Both these residents have been contacted and the matter is being investigated,” he said.
Mr Thorpe said every subdivision planning permit submitted to council was required to have a Site Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) which included plans to control dust.
He said the council and EPA conducted site inspections to assess whether SEMPs were being complied with.
“If a poor level of compliance is identified, council will require further controls to be implemented,” he said.
The EPA did not respond to Star Weekly’s request for comment.
