By Alesha Capone
Residents of a Tarneit street have lashed out at offenders who continue to illegally dump rubbish on a vacant block near their homes.
Across the past two years, Star Weekly has published a series of articles about waste being dumped at the Butterfly Boulevard site.
Wyndham council staff have visited the block 18 times since January last year, and organised for the rubbish to be cleaned up, when it spreads onto the nature-strip and footpath.
Star Weekly was contacted by two Butterfly Boulevard residents earlier this month, who both said the rubbish dumping is “out of hand”.
“Is there any way of encouraging the landholder to build on it, to prevent further reoccurrences [of dumping]?” one resident who asked not to be named said.
A second resident, Bradley, said the rubbish dumping was appalling.
“It’s disgusting that people are doing this, they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
“I’m finding people dumping rubbish like a rubbish tip, it’s getting worse and worse.”
Wyndham council’s director of city operations, Stephen Thorpe, said: “Council is aware that there has been a reoccurring problem of rubbish being dumped illegally on vacant property on Butterfly Boulevard.
“The property owners hired a private contractor to remove the rubbish, but the job was cancelled due to Covid-19 precautions, so council is in the process of finding a suitable contractor to carry out the works, for which the property owners will pay.
“As a short-term solution to illegal dumping in the area, the owners have agreed to erect a temporary fence around the property.”
Mr Thorpe said the council would continue to monitor illegal dumping on vacant land and take action where necessary.
Wyndham mayor, Cr Josh Gilligan, said: “There is a zero tolerance for anyone taking advantage of the pandemic to illegally dump [rubbish] .
“We’re still offering hard waste services and weekly rubbish collection to assist households during this period”.
Book a hard waste collection through Wyndham council’s website www.wyndhamvic.gov.au or by calling the council on 9742 0777 .”
