The operator of a Goulburn building waste recycling yard will be sentenced in the NSW Land and Environment Court later this year over alleged failures to remove material from the site.
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An EPA spokesperson confirmed the Authority was prosecuting Christopher Eveston, the director of Northern Park Pty Ltd, regarding the yard at 12 Common Street, north Goulburn.
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The spokesperson said the matter, before the NSW land and Environment Court, related to alleged failures to comply with conditions of a notice revoking an environment protection licence. Specifically, it required all waste to be removed from the site by October 26, 2019.
"Mr Eveston has entered guilty pleas to both charges and the matters are listed for sentencing on October 12 to 13, 2022 in the NSW Land and Environment Court," a spokesperson said.
"We have been pursuing clean-up action through the courts for more than three years and will continue to follow all avenues to get the best outcome for the local community and environment."
Mr Eveston declined comment, citing legal considerations.
He has previously operated the site under several company names, including Southern State Waste Recycling and Common Street Recycling.
The yard has attracted complaints about large waste volumes, snakes, rats and other vermin. Adjoining neighbour, the late Kevin Peterson, pursued the matter with the EPA and the council over several years.
"It won't be gone before I am," Mr Peterson told The Post in June, 2019.
He passed away in February, 2022.
The EPA issued a revocation notice to Mr Eveston in April, 2018, records showed. Under its terms, which took effect from December, 2018, no more than 3195 cubic metres of waste should have been on the site by May 21, 2019. Mr Eveston subsequently appealed its contentions and a new deadline of October 26, 2019 was set.
Under the revocation notice, he could not bring any further waste on to the site.
The EPA and the council have also claimed that the recycling facility's planning consent expired in 2013.
The EPA alleged that no material had been removed from the yard. In June 2019, an EPA spokesperson said Mr Eveston had cited a combination of "financial issues and difficulties finding a landfill site to accept the waste."
This was despite Goulburn Mulwaree Council in December, 2018 offering Mr Eveston's company a discounted rate of $184 per tonne, a $40/tonne reduction, to dispose of the material at its Sinclair Street waste management centre.
The council's utilities director Marina Hollands said this offer, which applied for nine months, was never taken up.
The matter again arose in a closed council session earlier this month. It was closed due to the EPA's legal action.
Councillors revised the discounted rate to $202.70 per tonne for the Common Street yard. Further, any items such as mattresses and tyres that had specific charges would be accepted at cost. The rates would apply until the end of the 202223 financial year.
Mayor Peter Walker said the revised tonnage fee reflected the change in the council's waste charges but was still a reduction. The council estimates that 6000 cubic metres of material remains in the yard.
"It needs to be addressed and we've put something on the table to help do that," he said.
"We've offered the discounted rate and we believe that's a better option than it sitting there forever and it going through an extended court process."
Cr Walker pointed out that several houses backed on to the site, including those in the Masonic Retirement Village.
The EPA spokesperson said the Authority had not received any recent community complaints about the site.
A council spokesman said the organisation received "a number of complaints" from 2016 to 2018 regarding "site compliance and general untidiness".
"The last complaint received was in November 2020, and was a request for overgrown land to be mowed and tidied," he said.
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Louise Thrower
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
