Information Sheet: 

Planning Application PA3354 (Manhari Metals)

The following information is to help the community understand what Council’s role is in Planning Applications and to address some common questions around a specific Planning Application by Manhari Metals (as of November 2025).

Council’s Role in assessing Planning Permit applications

• Ararat Rural City Council’s role in a planning application is to act as the responsible authority, assessing proposals against the Ararat Planning Scheme and the Victorian Planning Provisions. This framework provides the legal basis for Council planning decisions and ensures that all applications are evaluated fairly.
• While Council is solely responsible for deciding the outcome of a planning application it may require input from other statutory organisations who are experts in their field such as Heritage Victoria.
• Another key part of the planning process is the referral of applications to external referral authorities. Under the Victoria Planning Provisions, an application must be referred to specific external referral authorities, such as the Department of Transport and Planning for road impacts or the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for potential impacts to human health or the environment. These agencies are a critical part of the planning process, providing mandatory conditions or advice that Council must consider when making its final decision.
• Ararat Rural City Council is committed to transparent and accountable governance, and we encourage residents to engage with the formal planning process. You can view all planning application documents and submissions on our website at: https://ararat.greenlightopm.com/planning 
• If you are concerned about corruption, please contact the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) on 1300 735 135 or visit www.ibac.vic.gov.au.
• Please note: It is not a requirement of Council to request that Planning Permit applicants conduct community consultation relating to the application.

About PA3354 (Manhari Metals)

• Council is following the process as outlined above in the case of PA3354.
• Council must rely on the current Industrial 1 zoning when assessing PA3354. The Industrial 1 zoning has applied to the property as a minimum since the new planning scheme was introduced in April 2000. This information is easily accessible from the online Ararat Planning Scheme.
   

PA3354 Timeline

• The Planning Application was lodged in December 2023. As part of the planning process, additional information was requested and provided to Council in July 2024. 
• The information was reviewed by Council and was determined sufficient to progress to the next stage of advertising and referral to appropriate external referral agencies (including the EPA).
• Submissions made from the public were passed onto the applicant for a response. 
• Once all further information was provided to the satisfaction of the referral authorities and Council, a community consultation meeting was held to provide opportunity for all parties to express their views and explain the planning process prior to any final recommendation being made. 
• All submitters were provided with the final EPA response and undated operational information responding to EPA comments from the applicant on 8 July 2025.  To allow time to digest this information Council advised a decision would not be made prior to 28 July 2025.

About the process timing 

• A planning application should be determined within a 60-day statutory timeframe.  The statutory timeframe's clock starts and stops. For instance, the timeframe is suspended when a request for further information is made and resumes upon receipt of the response.
• In the case of PA3354, Council received the application and requested further information, to which the applicant required several months to prepare and provide a response.
• It was then referred to the EPA, who also required further information. This review process required several months to complete and was resolved on 26 June 2025.
  This enabled Council to then begin its complete assessment. 

Next steps

• Manhari Metals has now prepared an amended application. 
• As a result of this, Council will release a Section 57A Amendment to an Application on Tuesday 25 November 2025. This will automatically notify previous objectors. 
• The Amendment will be advertised, and the advertising period will last around three weeks. 
• Once the advertising phase is complete, the application will commence a standard reporting and assessment process and a decision will be made by the Delegate. 

To be noted

The Section 57A Amendment to an Application does refer to Manhari Metals intended on 24/7 hours of operation. Council wishes to make clear:

• At this time, Manhari Metals is not operating 24/7. 
• Moving forward, if this application is successful, trucks will NOT be operating 24/7 - they will continue to operate regular business hours. 
• Heavy machinery will NOT be operating 24/7. The tyre recycling process uses cutting edge catalytic process and this component only will run overnight and not create additional noise. 

The current application is on our Greenlight portal and is available for the public to view at any time.