Perth Voice Interactive

THE long and dusty saga of Claisebrook’s concrete plants has an end in sight with an intricate land swap plan in the works.

The Cook government plans to shift the plants out of the neighbourhood, but residents are dead against any deal that’d extend their approval to operate beyond the current June 30, 2024 expiry.

The two plants, one owned by Hanson and one own by Holcim, have operated out of the area on rolling time-limited approvals since the early 2000s.

Dust

Residents have long wanted them gone, saying the dust, noise and heavy trucks are holding back an area that’s ripe for rejuvenation.

Their current approval to operate runs to mid-2024, but neither is ready to move. 

Holcim is planning to eventually move its Claisebrook operations to a site in Welshpool once it’s upgraded, but has asked the WA Planning Commission to approve another seven years of operation in the meantime. 

So far Holcim’s global head office in Zurich hasn’t approved the move to Welshpool.

Hanson has found a new potential home in Vincent council’s current depot in Osborne Park, having “immediately expressed a keen interest” when offered the site, according to a Vincent report.

It’s a good spot for truck access, and Hanson was asked to find a suitable site to trade for a new Vincent depot.

It couldn’t find one. 

Instead the state government recently offered up a soon-to-be-decommissioned Western Power depot in Claremont. Hanson has also asked the WAPC for an extension until the land juggle is complete. The whole process will likely take “years, not months,” according to Vincent’s planning staff. 

One bargaining chip the concrete companies hold is that while their operation has an expiry date, there’s no requirement to remove the buildings or decontaminate the site, meaning they could move out and leave them there. Similar industrial sites have been left dormant for years because they’re so prohibitively expensive to clean up, becoming favoured haunts for vandals, urban explorers and city campers. 

Hanson has said it will decontaminate the site as part of the relocation deal, but Holcim hasn’t put anything on the table yet. 

Residents want the WAPC to reject any extension.

Damage

At the November 14 Vincent council briefing, resident Trish Brown said “the damage of a further extension to the progress, investment in, and development of the Claisebrook precinct cannot be underestimated, as we are all aware the current uses are not compatible with the area.

“Ample time has been provided to both companies to genuinely progress with the relocation and to enable Claisebrook to capitalise on its very unique development potential.”

Ratepayer David Di Prospero said he’d been coming to council about this issue many times over the years, dating back to Nick Catania’s term as mayor.

He said the area was ripe for rejuvenation and would be a prime spot for the kind of affordable housing the state and federal governments have been calling for.

“What’s required is another area of very affordable housing close to the city that will do much more good for the area… rather than having these two concrete batching plants who think they’re allowed, or should be allowed, to stay.”

Mr Di Prospero said he recalled there was once thriving residential populations in Claisebrook long before the plants moved in.

Population

“[It’s] a great place to start up a new population. I’ve seen people living in that area back in the 60s in the 70s… but the area has been deprived of a population, and I can’t understand any government agreeing to actually let that happen,” given the plants can just make concrete elsewhere.

Vincent councillors will vote on whether to endorse the land swap deal at their full meeting on November 21. Staff have recommended they endorse the plan to vacate the depot for Hanson and shift over to the old Western Power site, and suggested council “agrees not to object to the shortest possible extension to Hanson’s current planning approval, in order to undertake a smooth and orderly relocation”. 

The staff recommendation advises council to object “in the strongest possible terms to any extension to Holcim’s planning approval in Claisebrook”.

Ahead of the meeting mayor Alison Xamon penned a letter to Mr Carey, who’s also the planning minister, expressing “council and our community’s great disappointment that the two concrete batching plants in Claisebrook have still not finalised their permanent relocation”.

Her letter says: “The City of Vincent also considers the decommissioning, decontamination, and demolition of these plants is a matter of regional importance which would enable high-density mixed-use development immediately adjoining the Claisebrook train station.

“There is no planning nor economic justification to allow these two batching plants operations to continue to sterilise a strategic urban redevelopment site”.

by DAVID BELL