Victory! Collex's waste dump trashed

by Edward Mason

In a stunning decision the NSW Land and Environment Court 
overturned Collex' s Ministerial and local council approval to 
build a massive Waste Transfer Station at Clyde. The Court 
decided the land which is part of the Clyde Railway Marshalling 
Yards, is not zoned for use as a waste transfer station. The 
court said if one were built it would have an adverse effect on 
the lives of local residents.

This decision is a major victory for local residents who have 
fought for the last two and a half years against plans by Collex 
to build a massive waste transfer station in the heart of Sydney 
at Clyde.

The residents feared that it would be like a garbage dump in the 
middle of their suburbs, that it would eventually be used to 
collect all the waste from the Sydney region and that this would 
lead to hundreds of garbage trucks grinding through their streets 
every day.

They also feared that it would attract other noxious industries 
to the area as well as vermin and would produce noxious odours. 
The court supported these claims.

Missing in action

The victory was not due to support from the Auburn Council or 
local Labor MP and Auburn Councillor Barbara Perry who were 
missing in action when the local residents really needed their 
support. A couple of local residents were left to take on the 
might of the giant transnational Collex in the Land and 
Environment Court by themselves, without any legal representation 
or support from Auburn Council. Collex, is part of the French 
Veolia Environnement group, which also includes Vivendi, 
Compagnie Ginirale des Eaux, and Onyx.

Auburn Council claimed it would be a waste of money to take the 
matter to court because they could not win, but it did have a 
legal team at the Court during the whole proceedings which, 
despite being paid for by local ratepayers, worked with Collex's 
legal team during the case!

Time for change

Auburn now more than ever needs local councillors who will stand 
up and fight for the ordinary working people of Auburn. We don't 
need people who are tied to big business and the developers, we 
don't need political parties that receive millions of dollars 
every year in "donations" from the same corporations and 
developers that are trying to destroy our lives here in Auburn.

We need people who will fight plans to use us as a garbage dump, 
people who will stop the explosion of ugly and overcrowded high-
rise units in our area and people who will force Bob Carr to 
reopen our children's dental clinic.

That's why the Auburn Branch of the Communist Party has decided 
to take on the Labor Party and the Real Estate Agents who 
dominate Auburn Council. We believe the Council has failed local 
residents and should be thrown out.

The Auburn Branch is calling for a community controlled council 
not a developer controlled council.

To help throw out the current council, the Communist Party will 
be running candidates in next year's council elections, possibly 
in an alliance with others, and supporting candidates who put the 
local community's interests before those of the corporations and 
developers.