Cr Bill McArthur said he was outraged by the state of the controversial dumping site which is overflowing with waste. 

A visit to the Glenelg Highway landfill on Sunday revealed the devastation of the area, with a missing section of fence causing vast amounts of general waste to blow onto nearby paddocks and around homes. 

“The City of Ballarat don’t appear to give a damn about the residents living near this landfill,” Cr McArthur said. 

“They just can’t efficiently manage the facility. It’s a bloody disgrace.”

Cr McArthur said residents were fed up and it was only a matter of time before nearby animals, including cattle and horses, ate the rubbish and became sick. 

“There’s more rubbish outside the bloody tip than inside it,” he said. 

“And the council refuse to do anything about it, despite knowing exactly what is going on.”

The landfill is owned and operated by Ballarat City Council but located within Golden Plains Shire boundaries. 

City of Ballarat mayor John Philips said the council was aware of the issue and would immediately ramp up its effort to contain the waste site. 

“I’ll be following it up straight away and we will work to make sure that we can solve this issue for the residents living there,” Cr Philips said.

Cr Philips said the council believed motorbike riders had been cutting sections of the fence in an effort to break in to ride at the site. 

But Cr McArthur disputed this claim, telling The Courier contractors took down a large section of fence on the western side of the site last year when they worked to cap a section of the landfill. 

“That fence hasn’t been cut by young bike riders, it has been taken away,” he said. 

Cr Phillips said the council had sent a worker to the site on Sunday afternoon, soon after The Courier’s visit. 

He said the council would work to determine the best method to stop the spread of rubbish and the motorbike riders. 

The landfill has been a contentious issue for some years, with reports in 2012 that nearby residents were suffering due to a foul odour emanating from the site. 

About 65,000 tonnes of waste is dumped at the landfill annually, with about 18,000 tonnes coming from City of Ballarat kerbside garbage collection.

patrick.byrne@fairfaxmedia.com.au