Picture: SANDRA MORELLO
A THREE year dispute between an OB Flat property owner and Grant District Council is expected to escalate as council contractors prepare to move in to clean up the “junkyard” site.
But OB Flat resident Robert Kermond – who lives on Blockers Lane – has made an 11th hour appeal for council to stop the looming works.
Speaking to The Border Watch this week, Mr Kermond – who has a disability after suffering an electrocution – described the decision by the rural council as “heavy-handed”.
The state’s Environment Resources and Development Court ordered Mr Kermond in February 2015 to clean up the property following legal action taken by council.
Since then there has been ongoing dialogue between the two parties with Mr Kermond claiming 90pc of the material has been removed.
At this week’s council meeting, councillors called for the issue to be escalated and contractors to clean up the property within two weeks.
Spearheading the push was fed-up elected member Alan Hill, who fired a series of questions to council staff over the lack of urgency on the matter given councillors directed the clean-up works at its previous meeting.
“It has been two weeks since our last council meeting and there is a court decision three years ago – the neighbours have been putting up with this for years,” Cr Hill said.
While staff cautioned they needed to check final legalities before sending contractors in, the councillor said council must now move forward with the long overdue action.
“There has just been no action, we have spent money on court decisions,” Cr Hill said.
“It is about time council started respecting neighbours who have been complaining for years, instead I believe protecting a person who has been deliberately avoiding the issue.”
Under the court order, the owners must remove scrap metal, steel, firewood, building materials, water tanks, rubbish, household appliances, industrial machinery, farm implements, car parts, fencing materials, fork lifts, vehicles, electrical wiring, cabling and furniture.
Mr Kermond said he had made substantial inroads into cleaning up his property, but conceded there was still some material left.
The landholder revealed he planned to fully clean up once the property was sold, but claimed a court order was preventing the sale, which had left him in limbo.
He claimed council was targeting him after another long running junkyard issue in the Grant district involving another landholder.
“I think the council is being heavy handed,” said Mr Kermond, who questioned if the contractors would take all his material.
He said some of the material had value, was useful or had sentimental qualities.
Explaining he had been a member of the CFS for more than 40 years, he said council should show compassion given his disability.
He said he was left with serious mobility issues after a workplace incident some years ago, which he described as an electrocution.
Mr Kermond said he found it particularly hypocritical there was an EPA approved asbestos dump in a quarry on the boundary of his property, but he could not house non-toxic material.
He revealed most of the items on his property were left over from his long running engineering business.
At the meeting, Mayor Richard Sage said council should again contact the landholders ahead of the works.
“Let’s see what happens over the next fortnight,” Mr Sage said.
