Overgrown areas to get tidy-up following February rain

With rapid vegetation growth following the rainfall, Council mowers and garden crews are busy getting public areas under control. Council says it is a big job that will take some time to complete. 

“It can take a little while to get vegetation under control after a rain event as widespread as the one we had in February” said Brendon Harvey, Acting Public Facilities Manager. “We’ve got a lot of sites to attend to across all of our towns, but step-by-step we’ll get there.”

“It’s important work. Apart from being unsightly, leaving overgrown areas unchecked can attract snakes and undesirable pests.”

Chief Executive Officer, Ian Bodill, said while Council works on public areas, it is important that residents keep their own properties in-check.

“It’s a team effort” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, so we need residents to stay on top of their own patch while we look after the rest of it.”

He said Council would eventually conduct inspections and issue compliance notices for overgrown properties, but it wanted to give people some time to get on top of things first.

“We’ll start inspections from mid-March – we think that’s a fair amount of time. We realise not everyone is able to do their own maintenance but there’s no shortage of gardening services available in our region.

“Everyone has to do their bit. It’s just part of being a responsible tenant or owner.”

Property inspections and compliance notices are scheduled to commence on Friday 15 March 2019. Residents who are unable to maintain their property in time are encouraged to contact Council’s Local Laws team on (07) 4658 4111 for further advice.