Boronia Road neighbours in Rosa Glen cheer mine refusal despite pending State Administrative Tribunal case

Residents living near a proposed contentious gravel pit in Rosa Glen were cheering at last Wednesday night’s council decision, though their elation could be short-lived.

The council voted 5-1 to support a recommended refusal put forward by Shire of Augusta-Margaret River planning officers for the gravel mine off Boronia Road.

Residents made an impassioned plea for the council to reject the gravel pit despite the looming refusal, fearing for their lifestyle, amenity, the health of their children, and potential hit to property prices.

Planners had already ruled the proposal failed to meet key criteria, despite debate on Wednesday night highlighting gravel as a crucial resource for roads and the region’s thriving construction sector.

The refusal was based on inconsistencies with the priority agriculture zone, landscape damage from the proposed noise bunds, and State and local planning policies, including the Shire’s update extractive industries policy.

“The noise and visual impact of the proposal are considered to be incompatible with its setting, including the effect of the height, bulk, scale, orientation and appearance of the development and impacts to the amenity of the locality the character of the locality and social impacts of the development,” the refusal report said.

Neighbour Clare Devlin gave an emotional speech raising concerns for the health of her young children from protracted construction of a required bund — itself not subject to noise restrictions — to ameliorate noise and dust from the pit operations during its life span.

Another neighbour, Caitlyn Hick, told members, “A wall of this height is unprecedented within the shire.”

Representing the proponents Graham and Nancy Minchin and land owners Kevin and Shelley Silverthorne, planning consultant Joe Algeri made clear the council had to make a ruling before the matter went to the State Administrative Tribunal.

The proposal was lodged 18 months ago and a decision was overdue, and Mr Algeri cited his broad experience within extractive industry proposals at SAT.

Neighbours’ concerns were rarely a mitigating factor at SAT, Mr Algeri said, with the tribunal very “technical” in its assessments.

“I cannot overstate the importance of the commodity, which is gravel,” he said.

However, Shire regulatory services manager Matt Cuthbert said the refusal was not based on amenity concerns — though lone council supporter Ian Earl disagreed.

“This proposal only seems to fall on amenity,” Cr Earl said.

“There’s an awful lot of carbon miles that will be chewed up trucking this stuff from Capel.”

The Times understands the item was already with SAT, referred back to the council for a decision, with a challenge likely to result in reconsideration and the option for the local government to impose more strict conditions.