Quarry blasted

By Tania Martin
BUILDING materials company Boral has been accused of resorting to dirty tricks in its bid to have a council decision overturned.
In November last year the Shire of Yarra Ranges unanimously voted to deny the extension of the Montrose Quarry.
The council also called for Boral to stop its campaign to extend the quarry. The proposal called for the quarry to be extended by 7.9 hectares, which would also extend its working life by 12 years.
Since the council’s refusal Boral Quarries has been calling for the Government to appoint an independent panel to assess the application.
In its latest attempt to have a panel appointed, Boral last week released a survey that indicated 62 per cent of people living in the Monbulk and Kilsyth electorates didn’t know about the quarry extension.
The survey also showed that 50 per cent of people didn’t have an opinion on the extension, while a further 23 per cent were in favour and 28 per cent opposed.
However, Walling Ward councillor Len Cox said the survey was an attempt to ‘hood wink’ the Government into overturning the council’s original decision.
Boral’s Quarries general manager Paul Hillyer said that the survey confirmed that there was relatively small opposition to the proposed extension in terms of the overall electorates.
“Whilst there is some local opposition to the quarry, those opposing the proposal said there was widespread community dissatisfaction,” he said.
“This survey does not back that up.”
Mr Hillyer said that the survey showed that only 14 per cent of the community were strongly opposed.
But, Walling Ward councillor Len Cox said the survey was a deliberate attempt to mislead the minister.
“This infuriates me. It is deliberately misleading – the Kilsyth electorate goes down past Bayswater and the Monbulk electorates past Selby,” he said.
“A lot of people living in those areas don’t even go down to Montrose let alone know about the quarry expansion – it’s the greatest load of rubbish I have ever heard.”
Cr Cox said the survey was a blatant attempt at misleading the State Government into believing that the bulk of people are happy with the quarry extension.
“This survey is dishonest and if I was Mr Madden (planning minister) I would furious that someone was trying to hood-wink me like this,” Cr Cox said.
STOP Montrose Quarry group member David Dobson said the survey was a deliberate attempt to discredit local residents’ concerns over the proposed extension.
“The figures are very woolly and it makes no real sense to survey people in living in the Monbulk electorate,” he said.
“All we can do now is to contact the minister and reinforce our position that this decision shouldn’t be overturned and that we are appalled at what Boral is trying to do.”
But Mr Hillyer has denied that Boral is playing any ‘dirty tricks’.
He said more than 400 people were surveyed and that those opposing the quarry had claimed that the opposition was widespread through the community.
“The survey was designed to look at the overall community reaction, not only the area immediately around the quarry,” he said.