Garbage trucks could hit major roads much earlier under a proposal for the Lucas Heights tip to open at 4am from Monday to Saturday.
At present, the facility, which takes waste from many council areas, opens at 6am on weekdays and 8am on weekends.
SUEZ (formerly SITA) has proposed the extension of hours to Sutherland Shire Council after receiving approval early this year for a major expansion of Lucas Heights Resource Recovery Park – see the video below.
A report by council staff recommended they work with SUEZ to address operational issues before an extension of hours was considered.
However, the report said earlier opening hours could be beneficial to the council’s waste service.
There could be opportunities for earlier collection on major roads to avoid traffic disruptions and improve road safety, more efficient use of council's collection fleet, potentially allowing doubling of waste collection shifts, and greater flexibility.
The report said SUEZ wished to submit an application to extend the operational hours by opening at 4am rather than the currently approved 6am Monday to Friday, and from 6am on Saturday.
“SUEZ currently experiences vehicle queuing at the landfill in the early hours, potentially impacting on delivery times and safety at the Little Forest Road and New Illawarra Road intersection,” the report said.
“The extended operating hours are proposed to address this problem.”
The report said impacts from extended operating hours were expected to be more trucks on the road earlier, but less during morning peak hour, increased early morning traffic noise and visual impacts from early morning lighting at the tip.
“These impacts are not expected to be significant and may have some benefits [such as] reduced peak hour traffic volumes,” the report said.
“Earlier opening hours may have operational benefits for council's waste operations.”
SUEZ said in its proposal the modification of hours was “minor” and the environmental impacts would be “negligible”.
“Given the minor nature of the proposed modification, it is considered that the modification is consistent with the original development consent,” SUEZ said.
The council report said, “While this may be the case, the supporting information to reach this conclusion is light in several instances”.
The report highlighted particular concern in relation to justification, traffic, noise and light:
“Justification: The proposal fails to justify that an additional two hours of opening time is required to overcome existing problems on site.
“Assessment of both one hour and two hour opening options is required to properly justify the proposal.
“Traffic: While increasing the spread of hours available for deliveries early in the morning will reduce vehicle numbers during morning peak hour, numbers of vehicles expected to access the site during these extended hours have not been provided, therefore benefits and impacts cannot be quantified.
“Noise: While operational noise at the landfill has been assessed, additional traffic noise during the extended hours has not been assessed.
“Light: The assessment concludes that additional lighting at the tip face will not be visible from residential areas.
“This is not the case, as areas of the tip face and haul roads will be visible from residential areas of Menai and Barden Ridge.
“While this may be negligible it still requires consideration and assessment to reach this conclusion.”
The report said it believed these issues could be satisfactorily addressed.
“It is proposed that the Manager Environmental Science continue to work with SUEZ staff the ensure that all the above issues are addressed to council's satisfaction, prior to council consenting to lodgement with the Department of Planning,” the report said.
The report said, if the council supported the lodgement of the application, the project would be placed on public exhibition by the Department of Planning, providing the community with an opportunity to comment .
The matter is due to be considered at a meeting of the council’s Planning Committee on November 6.
