HOPLEY Demolition has been ordered to clean up and get off crown land the City of Greater Bendigo claims the company has been illegally trespassing on for several years.
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Hopley Demolition, which has won the contract for significant projects such as the new Bendigo hospital, has been storing truckloads of industrial waste on the old tip site at White Hills. The company does not have a lease on the site.
Despite it erecting business signs and gates at the Heywood Street entrance to the site, there are no permits in place for Hopley Demolition to access the old tip or use the area as a retail premises or for storing waste in readiness for crushing.
There is also believed to be no building permit for the site office.
The company does have permits to operate a crushing and recycling facility on land alongside the old tip.
Planning and development director Prue Mansfield learnt about 18 months ago that the company was encroaching on neighbouring crown land.
Ms Mansfield said the council had tried to work with the company, but had reached the point where any further use of the land could cause long-term damage.
A Meinhardt report commissioned this year deemed extensive detailed assessments were needed at the site before it was proven safe for future use.
For this reason, Ms Mansfield said it was impossible to determine the level of risk and therefore use of the land in the short term was no longer appropriate.
“We don’t know the level of risk but the level of unknowns are so high that it creates an unacceptable risk,” she said.
“It is not that it is unsafe, we don’t know that it is safe.
“We have a long term responsibility to remediate the site”.
The company has also breached the Environmental Protection Act 1970 for depositing industrial waste at a site without permits to do so.
The Environmental Protection Authority has issued Hopley Demolition Recycling Pty Ltd with a clean-up notice, requiring the company to remove all industrial waste from the premises and dispose to a licensed site before December 31.
The City of Greater Bendigo’s timeline for the company to take action is believed to be shorter.
The Bendigo Advertiser spoke with Ken Hopley on Monday, who referred the newspaper to his lawyer.
Greg Tobin of Melbourne-based firm Harwood Andrews confirmed he was acting for the Hopley group and was in talks with the City of Greater Bendigo, so could not comment on confidential matters.
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