City of Albany council ticks off on condition changes for Great Southern Lime Nullaki operation after debate

Great Southern Lime will operate its Nullaki lime pit under new conditions in the new year after council this week backed changes designed to alleviate safety concerns. Earlier this year, GSL applied to have four of the 45 conditions attached to its approved operation altered so it could establish and operate a storage zone in a safer location for third-party vehicles to access. It came after the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety effectively shut the operation down in March over concerns the inline to the pit was too steep for anything other than specialised vehicles to access. During a comment period 74 submissions, mostly against the changed conditions, were submitted to the City. On Tuesday, councillors voted 7-3 in favour of changes to the conditions to allow for the creation of a stockpile at the base of the hill, the creation of a new hardstand and turning area, and to allow one hectare extra to be open at the pit site at any one time. The vote came after 20 minutes of debate between councillors. Cr Lynn MacLaren said she would not back the recommendation because she believed the changes went against the “meticulous” detail considered in the State Administrative Tribunal approval of 2019. She said excavation and loading were supposed to happen in a small footprint, that there had been no independent noise modelling for the proposed stockpile area and the community had not been engaged regarding the compromise City officers had proposed. “The operation is quite a bit more complex than SAT allowed,” she said. “We, as a council, are charged with showing leadership.” Cr Stephen Grimmer said the community had accepted the SAT ruling, but that he would vote against the recommendation because of the significance of the changes. “The recommendation sort of assumes this is the same as other extractive industries in the City, but I want to remind people this is a non-compliant activity in a conservation zone,” he said. “The requested change also seems to be due to a lack of due diligence, the community wrote to agencies on several occasions to say that hill was dangerous.” Cr Malcolm Traill said he was “all for safety, but also for the community’s right to amenity and this flies in the face of that amenity in my opinion”. “The local community in that area has been united in its opposition,” he said. Cr Amanda Cruse said the council knew where the community stood on the matter and that City officers had produced an excellent report that was “extremely thorough, knowledgeable and one of the best I’ve seen of this nature”. “We know that without this stockpiling area, they can’t work the pit, they need this space,” she said. “That’s all we are talking about here, so unless we are planning to shut the whole thing down — which I really don’t think anyone wants to do — we have to let this one go through.” Cr Thomas Brough said the matter was a planning decision that should not be made based on emotion and that there were “legacy issues” that had been raised that were not relevant. “There are opponents that we have heard are distressed and unhappy, and I know there are many people who want us to put the finger on the scales to try and even out the perceived injustice,” he said. “We are not here to put a finger on the scales, we are here to consider a planning matter. “In this matter, the considerations have been appropriately addressed and we have no grounds to refuse.” Cr Robert Sutton said he thought the recommendation was a “good compromise”. “There is a huge demand for quality lime in this area,” he said. Two of the three remaining recommendations attached to the item were passed unanimously after Cr Traill won support for amendments to each of them. The recommendation focused on the pit’s operating period was changed so that excavation and screening will only be allowed from January 2 to August 31, instead of being year-round. Movement of lime onsite will be limited to the same eight-month period and transportation of lime offsite can still only take place for the first four months each year. The recommendation focused on the number of truck movements in and out of the site was altered to allow for a maximum of 84 movements over seven days and a maximum of 20 on any one day. The fourth recommendation, regarding what should be contained within compliance reports submitted to the City by June 30 annually was also supported unanimously. Cr MacLaren tabled an amendment asking the report to be presented to the council each year so that it would be placed on public record, but it failed to win the support of enough councillors. Cr Paul Terry left the chambers for the item and did not take part in voting as he had declared a financial interest.