Debate continues about bike park and smoke stack

A PAIR of features of Anglesea’s landscape continue to dominate discussions about Alcoa’s plans for its mine and power station – but for entirely opposite reasons.

Some members of the community continue to argue that the smoke stack of the power station (which is all that remains following the demolition last year) should go, and the Anglesea Bike Park (which is slated for relocation) should stay.

Those two topics comprised a large part of the conversation at Alcoa’s latest Community Consultation Network meeting, held at the Anglesea Senior Citizens Centre on Monday night.

In response to questions from the floor, Alcoa site asset manager for Anglesea and Point Henry Warren Sharp said the stack was originally meant to come down with the rest of the power station, but Alcoa later decided not to after receiving feedback during consultation for the Anglesea Futures Plan that the stack could be re-used for some other purpose.

“We don’t want to lose that opportunity, if it’s a genuine one, moving forward.

“If at some point, we decide it’s got no future, we’ll pull it down.”

He said the smoke stack was not part of Alcoa’s agreement with regulators such as EPA Victoria to clean up the mine.

“It’s like (being) a corner garage owner. To be honest, it’s why you see in society, so many derelict places – the fundamental reason is they’re freehold landowners and it’s up to them, providing it doesn’t create a safety issue or an environmental issue for the community.

“Like you and I as landowners, we’re entitled to have structures on our property.”

Mr Sharp also said Alcoa “understood the sentiment that’s out there” about the bike park, and had a petition with 6,000 signatures calling for the bike park (which sits on Alcoa-owned land that the company plans to rezone) to stay in its existing location.

“We understand the sentiment that’s out there.

“But at the end of the day, for what it’s worth, we reserve the right to make a decision about our property.”

He said he could not give timelines on when decisions would be made about either the stack or the bike park.

“But whatever happens, we won’t rush that.”