It’s been more than three weeks since a State Government intervention opened the door for Hobsons Bay City Council to secure the rights of Techno Park residents to stay in our homes forever.
It’s been 7 days since workers at the Mobil tank farm next door confirmed that they have started the process of taking the empty tanks down.
What is Council’s response? Silence, and a still looming May eviction date for every family, pensioner, and other low income resident on our street.
Can you email Mayor Tyler to ask him to stand up for residents?
When Councillors voted in October to evict Techno Park residents from our homes, then-Mayor Cr Briffa told the media that “Council is required to act when we receive reports of people, including children, living […] on land likely to contain contamination.” But an EPA report to Mobil from 2014, which lists Council as a stakeholder and is publicly available on the EPA’s website, finds no contamination at Techno Park.
Hobsons Bay City Council told the public that they “discovered” people lived at Techno Park in 2022, when the EPA alerted Mobil of a complaint by a resident. But the 2014 report refers to Techno Park Dr as residential at least five times—listing it with other residential areas in a table of sensitive land uses surrounding Mobil’s refinery sites, and even giving it its own colour on a map to indicate mixed use residential, commercial and industrial.
Shame on Hobsons Bay Council for plotting to force a mass eviction of residents from our own homes, for misleading the public about why, for refusing to answer public questions, for falsely implying that parents have endangered their own children, and for their unbelievable recklessness with people’s lives.
Can you email Mayor Tyler to ask him to stand up for residents?
If you’re able to, please consider making a contribution to our fighting fund at Chuffed.org. The money raised will go towards getting the word out about our campaign, getting our legal team the resources they need, and enabling us to respond quickly to any unexpected costs that might arise.
For more about our history, our community, and our fight to stay in our homes, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram.
Thank you.