HOBSONS Bay Council will write to Planning Minister Matthew Guy and the EPA expressing concern after receiving legal advice that no planning permit is required for a company to fumigate containers near Newport homes, schools and kindergartens.
Container Fumigation Services (CFS) will be able to fumigate at 407 Douglas Parade, Spotswood, with methyl bromide — a colourless, odourless pesticide banned in many OECD countries and linked to death from motor neurone disease.
On April 9, residents in the Newcastle suburb of Carrington were told to stay indoors after about 100 kilograms of methyl bromide leaked from a canister during fumigation.
About 350 objections to the fumigation plans were received by Hobsons Bay Council.
Last week’s council meeting heard that councillors had been advised that no “planning permit is required for the use of the land for the purpose of biocide production and storage”.
The council has received legal advice that the use of biocide is incidental to the approved land use of container storage.
The council will write to Mr Guy and the EPA seeking to amend state provisions “by removing the reference to fumigation from the current definition of container storage”.
Strand ward councillor Paul Morgan said the council had sought legal advice from two parties and both agreed that a permit was not required for fumigation.
Cr Morgan said this was because the land had already been approved for a container facility.
“This [fumigation] falls within their [CFS’s] approved usage at this point in time; having containers stored and fumigated at the site. Now council will be unable to pursue it because we haven’t got a legal point of view to stand on.”
He said the council would try to amend its planning scheme to prevent a repeat, but it was unlikely that any amendment could be applied retrospectively.
