Verde Terra has filed an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia on a ruling relating to the Mangrove Mountain landfill.
The move follows a NSW Court of Appeal judgment delivered on June 2, in which the court upheld a Land and Environment Court (LEC) ruling in March last year that Verde Terra would need to apply for new approvals for any extension of the landfill’s operations.
It is the latest development in a long-running court battle over the controversial landfill site, with resident groups and Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch speaking out on possible risks to the region’s water sources and environment posed by its operations.
The saga began in 1998, when the then Gosford City Council granted development consent to Verde Terra for the upgrading of the Mangrove Mountain golf course from nine holes to 18 holes.
The development required excavation and backfilling with waste materials so as to remodel existing contours of the land to provide better playing conditions and to increase the capacity of existing water storage.
There were conditions of development consent that, amongst other things, the operations of the waste facility were to be carried out in accordance with a Landfill Environment Management Plan.
In 2003 and 2009, Council approved applications to modify the terms of the development consent.
But in 2012, Council commenced proceedings in the Land and Environment Court alleging that Verde Terra had breached the terms of the development consent.
Council wanted Verde Terra to remove excess fill material on the land and grade it to restore it to the finished land levels in accordance with the development consent to prepare it for its approved use as a golf course.
Following mediation, in 2013 a joint submission from Council and Verde Terra proposed orders which would see: a completed 18 hole championship golf course within a period of 10 years; a specified design for the golf course; a specified volume of space able to be filled with waste material; appropriate controls and monitoring during the course of the construction of the golf course to minimise risk of environmental harm; and the lowering of the mound fill in part of the site to a more acceptable height.
In 2014, the primary judge made the orders sought by consent.
Since the making of the 2014 consent orders, Verde Terra has not accepted further waste on the land.
In 2019 Verde Terra commenced proceedings in the Land and Environment Court (LEC), claiming it could conduct waste disposal to the landfill without the need to obtain further development consent, saying such action was covered in the original development approval.
Council countered that development consent granted by the former Gosford Council in 1998 for the re-modelling of the existing golf course did not authorise the scale, location and nature of waste disposal and other landfill activities on the site.
Last March, LEC Justice Rachel Pepper ruled that while Verde Terra could carry out works ordered by the Court on August 29, 2014, additional consent would need to be sought for any other uses.
The 2014 orders between the former Gosford City Council and Verde Terra included agreement to accept 1.14 million cubic metres of waste at the site.
At the time, Justice Pepper criticised Council for not acting earlier on its concerns Verde Terra had breached its development consent and pursued activities beyond the 2014 LEC orders.
Verde Terra appealed last year’s LEC decision to the Court of Appeal, which upheld Pepper’s ruling on June 2.
A Council spokesperson confirmed this week that it had been notified that Verde Terra has filed an application for special leave to appeal the decision to the High Court of Australia.
“At this stage, Council has not been served with the application, but intends to actively respond,” the spokesperson said.
Terry Collins