Council last week released Draft Town Structure Plans for the five main communities in the Shire and a Rural Hepburn Strategy. These Structure Plans have been developed to guide and manage growth and development of the townships to 2050 as part of Council’s Future Hepburn Project.

In creating the Draft Plans, Council commissioned reports from a number of independent consultants at significant cost.

Future Hepburn has been described as a “once in a generation project” and the Structure Plans have led to considerable discussion and debate in communities. Some areas of concern have prompted the formation of community action groups.

One proposal in the Daylesford and Hepburn Springs Structure Plan which has alarmed residents is an investigation of the area around the Transfer Station for a Buffer Zone Overlay.

The Daylesford landfill site was closed in 2004 and and capped and replaced with the current transfer station. However, there are environmental risks including air, soil and groundwater contamination associated with landfill sites which have been closed and rehabilitated.

This issue was raised in 2020 as part of the C80hepb Planning Scheme Amendment. The proposed amendment included a design and development overlay (DDO6) which would have potentially prevented any new development within 500m of the transfer station and would even have potentially prevented rebuilding homes within the overlay zone in the event that they were destroyed by fire or other disaster. The proposal would have dramatically impacted property values within the overlay and caused extreme distress for residents in the area.

DDO6 was eventually abandoned by Council. Council issued an apology to residents for the distress caused by the process and committed to a consultative Waste Management Review process.

Council, as manager of these former landfill sites at Daylesford, Creswick, Clunes and Trentham is required by the EPA to undertake air, soil and groundwater monitoring  to assess any health and wellbeing risks. Council commissioned a review of former landfill sites and received a report dated 22 December 2022, which identified “information gaps and uncertainties” and a “lack of a documented monitoring program” and stated that “the Site does not appear to hold or implement a documented after care management plan.”

Local residents were not contacted about any further consultation in the promised Waste Management Review.

“It is important to note that Council has met the directives of the EPA,” said Hepburn Shire CEO, Bradley Thomas. “Council has a number of closed landfill sites and there are differing requirements for the monitoring the three sites. The EPA have not had any specific monitoring requirements for the Daylesford site, however Council does have a responsibility to manage risk. In 2023, Council did invite tenders and appointed suitably qualified experts to continue monitoring at one site and commence monitoring at other sites.”

An economic develop theme map in the Draft Structure Plan identifies an area around the Daylesford Transfer Station for environmental assessment and investigation of mitigation options.

The Draft Structure Plan adopts a more nuanced approach than the Planning Scheme Amendment. Without suggesting specific changes to existing overlays, the Draft suggest that “These impacts could be better managed by applying a Buffer Area Overlay and an Environmental Audit Overlay area around the facility but their precise extents would be subject to further detailed environmental assessments.” The intent is to leave open to discussion and negotiation with residents the nature and extent of any Buffer Overlay.

Nevertheless, the Draft Plan includes a “brown blob” over the area surrounding the old landfill site indicating the indeterminate nature of the proposal. As a “once in a generation” plan, the “brown blob” could remain as part of the Structure Plan for the next 25 years. Residents in the area impacted by the proposed buffer zone have written to the CEO and Councillors asking that the proposal be removed from the Structure Plan.

“Council understands that the introduction of potential ‘buffer zones’ will create some community concern, particularly given events of the past,” said Mr Thomas. “In order to allay these concerns, Council wrote to those impacted by DDO6 ahead of the Council Meeting to endorse the Draft Township Structure Plans for community consultation, so they were aware.  We have subsequently invited impacted residents to a meeting to discuss and work through their issues and concerns.”

The meeting of residents potentially affected by a Buffer Overlay Zone will be held on Tuesday, May 14 in the Daylesford Town Hall from 5:00pm to 6:00 pm.

Community Information sessions will be held in townships across the Shire including:

  • Daylesford: Saturday 1 June, from 2pm to 5pm at the Daylesford Town Hall, 76 Vincent Street, Daylesford. Introduction Presentation will commence at 4pm.
  • Hepburn Springs: Saturday 25 May, from 9am to 12pm at the Bendigo Community Bank building, 113 Main Street, Hepburn Springs. Introduction Presentation will commence at 11am.

There will also be an online webinar:

  • Webinar: Wednesday 15 May 2024, 4:30pm to 5:30pm. Click here to join. If you don’t have Teams, click on the ‘continue with browser’ option and follow the prompts.

Related Stories:

Residents Win Important Changes to Planning Scheme

Residents Remain Concerned about Waste Facility Restrictions

 

We encourage Daylesford and Hepburn Springs residents and residents in the surrounding rural areas to contribute to the conversation by submitting a Letter to the Editor of The Wombat Post.