Legal scrap chews cash

RATEPAYERS are funding a potential $500,000 legal dispute after a single noise complaint against the Gold Coast’s biggest recycling business, according to the scrap metal dealer.

Last August, the Bulletin revealed the Gold Coast City Council had installed secret cameras and tape recorders around Adrian’s Metal Recycling at Molendinar after a person representing nearby unit owners complained. A legal dispute in Brisbane’s Planning and Environment Court led to a mediation meeting between council and recyclers on February 2.

An on-site inspection was organised for 2pm followed by a without prejudice conference at the council offices at 3pm, despite the operators offering to have it on site to save time and costs.

Legal letters show negotiations fell apart after Cr Cameron Caldwell could not stay and the business operator now predicts a five-day trial could cost more than $200,000 and possibly $500,000. In a letter to Cr Caldwell after the meeting, Adrian’s Metal Recycling’s Adrian Fuller said “the Brisbane lawyers took over again and we are no closer to resolution, making Friday a farce”.

“We seem to be bulldozed in our attempts to compromise, the very purpose of mediation, because we are getting between your lawyers and a truckload of money. If the ratepayers knew what happened when you left on Friday, there would be an outcry.

“I am struggling to comprehend how we have had to spend in excess of $50,000 on an extremely tight budget, using no solicitors, suggesting council will spend over $200,000 on a single noise complaint made over three years ago.”

Cr Caldwell told the Bulletin: “It is inappropriate to comment on what transpired during a without prejudice meeting. As with all planning and environment court proceedings, in this matter we hope to reach a timely and satisfactory conclusion.”

Documents lodged by council in the Planning and Environment Court include a written complaint from the Pepper Hill residential community about unit owners having to “close doors and windows to watch TVs and to try and sleep”.

In his letter to Cr Caldwell, Mr Fuller said: “Why does council feel the need to bully us to do the impossible. If what we are doing is so bad … council could have applied for an injunction to stop the excavator years ago.”

Mr Fuller told Cr Caldwell that the B-double trucks working across the road into the night and mobile lunch vans with their blaring horns made more noise than the excavator.

“In fact the hoons that do the burnouts in the cul-de-sac at night and weekend should be of more concern,” he wrote.