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Community views are concrete

Lauren PilatEastern Reporter

Bayswater Council rejected WA Limestone's application on behalf of Ransberg for a concrete batching plant at 277-279 Collier Road in 2011 after receiving about 400 letters of opposition.

Community and council concerns included noise, heavy vehicle traffic, close proximity to residence and health risks from pollution.

The application included building three 19m silos, 16 storage bins and retaining walls on the general industry site near homes, schools and Joan Rycroft Reserve.

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WA Limestone took the matter to the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) with members issuing planning approval in July 2014, with a number of stringent conditions imposed to control dust and noise emissions.

City of Bayswater spent more than $110,000 in legal fees and more than $14,000 in air quality consultants to defend community and council's opposition.

Mr Petrovic, who has 14 years of experience in the concrete industry, said the plant would destroy the area.

"It’s such a toxic industry, it shouldn't be allowed," he said.

"It shouldn’t have come this far, there’s thousands of acres in the state and they’re going to have it overlooking a nice park and residential area."

"Every house with a swimming pool here has black silt over the top of the pools already from surrounding businesses, it's even in the vents of the airconditioning, so we can’t get away from it."

Mayor Sylvan Albert said WA Limestone had submitted amended plans that would be considered by council on May 26 with the City responsible for enforcing compliance with approval conditions.

"The proposed modifications involve the re-design of the sand and aggregate delivery and storage system to a mostly enclosed system with underground aggregate delivery bins and above ground storage bins enclosed in a 12m high building. The amendments also include the addition of a concrete aggregate recycling unit, and one cement storage silo (resulting in a total of four silos)," he said.