{"id":299599,"date":"2021-05-21T19:08:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=299599"},"modified":"2021-05-21T20:20:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T10:20:16","slug":"green-light-for-bin-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/05\/21\/green-light-for-bin-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Light For Bin Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Providing a neighbouring property owner agrees to sell a hectare of land to Council, Maidenwell’s new waste transfer station will be bigger, more secure … and most importantly, out of public view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 21, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plans for a new Waste Transfer Station at Maidenwell were back on the agenda at this week’s South Burnett Regional Council committee meeting.<\/p>\n

Last week Councillors rejected the idea of putting bigger skip bins at the facility along with automation equipment to hoist the bins on and off trucks.<\/p>\n

However, further investigations had disclosed other options, and the projected cost is back to the original $350,000 figure.<\/p>\n

Councillors were told staff had found one of Council’s waste truck fleet was under-utilised.<\/p>\n

This truck had the capacity to cart bigger bins than those currently in use at Maidenwell, eliminating the need for specialised equipment or the purchase of a new vehicle.<\/p>\n

Manager Craig Patch told the meeting another major project hold-up was negotiations with the State Government over clearing a new site on an adjoining landowner’s property.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said that since Council’s last meeting, he had received a go-ahead from the State Government providing the new waste transfer site was at least a hectare in size.<\/p>\n

This was larger than the Council had previously negotiated with the landowner.<\/p>\n

But if they were willing to sell that amount of land, Mr Patch said the project would finally be able to proceed.<\/p>\n

Councillors then discussed whether plans to have the new transfer station enclosed by a fence and only able to be accessed by a swipe card were still necessary.<\/p>\n

Cr Gavin Jones said the biggest issue with Maidenwell was the number of non-residents who used it to dump household waste.<\/p>\n

He thought a fenced, high-security waste transfer station under CCTV surveillance would eliminate that problem, just as it had at two similar facilities in Kumbia and Proston.<\/p>\n

Discussion then turned to bin sizes, with Councillors eventually opting for enough bins to effectively double the transfer station’s current capacity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week’s decision to abandon automation had shaved the project’s estimated cost from $350,000 to $230,000.<\/p>\n

But the addition of extra land, CCTV and doubling current waste collection capacity pushed the project’s costs back to the original figure.<\/p>\n

The decision to approve the new project will be ratified at Council’s next general meeting.<\/p>\n