By Rebecca McDonald

The state’s planning tribunal has rejected a push by Wyndham residents to stop a huge expansion of the notorious local tip.

Wyndham City wants to increase the size the facility by 12 hectares, arguing residents and businesses still rely on landfill.

The towering tip, known as Tip Mountain or Mount Wyndham by locals, has become one of the region’s biggest eyesores and is easily visible to traffic on the Princes Freeway, especially when it is floodlit at night.

Locals say the facility is now so notorious it has eclipsed Melbourne Water’s Sewerage Farm as the region’s biggest target of ridicule.

The Western Region Environment Centre, which took its objection to VCAT, says it will not give up the fight.

It will now lobby the Victorian government to intervene, citing a high risk of odours and groundwater contamination.

Earlier this year a report by Environmental Justice Australia found that people living close to landfill sites need better protection for the effects of expanding piles of rubbish.

But Wyndham Council has warned it may have to stop accepting waste from other councils later this year if it’s prevented from expanding the tip.

The EPA approved the increase in size of the Werribee tip last year but work was halted while the VCAT challenge was heard.

Published on the website of Bay 93.9 on 14 August 2018