Safety and Risk Assessment
As the risks of Covid-19 pervade our communities, we continue to be required to Work-from-Home where possible. In Moonee Valley, one of many Councils in the Greater Melbourne region of Australia, the message is clear: Work-from-Home safely and enjoy your own backyard instead of the public places and spaces. That is, unless you have neighbours!! Then with more than a touch of irony, you would need to Work-From-Home with a different set of uncontrolled risks from your neighbours. Or, says Council, you could Work-from-Home without using your own backyard, but you will still be required to pay Council for the privilege of having a backyard that you have been dis-allowed to use.
Council and Ratepayers
Oh, and since Council allowed this to happen, you would think they would write to the Ratepayers to tell them this. But you would be mistaken for thinking this, because Council won’t write to you about such things – they’ll just write the Permit to enable your neighbour to destroy this amenity without controlling the risks associated, and without reference to your planned activities; your work; your children’s playtimes outdoors; your wet paint or your washing on the clothesline.
Local Laws, State Laws and Federal Laws
The Council will enable the tree-cutters to show up early on a Saturday morning without any notice, and will turn blind eyes when the tree cutters shower you or your property’s occupants with sawdust, breach State Laws, breach EPA laws as well as breaching their own Council permit conditions. You might not even be there to protect your property interests if you are down the shops buying essential items for yourself, for your family, or for your Home-Office. Council is okay with you finding out after-the-fact that a huge tree branch wiped out your fence, your dog or something else you value. In fact, Council’s response to these issues is that Council would rather drown itself in increasing layers of bureaucratic red-tape than re-visit its own role in the community and take meaningful action on behalf of its constituents.
Community
Uncontrolled risks and municipal bungling’s aside, it’s hard for an active participant of the community to stand idly by, while others murder nature’s beautiful trees; strip the community bare; and destroy habitats for native flora and fauna as well as for established vegetation, birds, animals and microcosms of all types. It seems that other people with less to offer the community have no problems with this pillage but they are still attracted to live in these leafy green precincts because of the wonderful mix of community amenities that were produced previously by those who were more forward-thinking.
Saving the Trees
Senseless murdering of fantastically healthy trees puts us on a slippery slope to a treeless, hot, glary suburbia of endless rooftops, devoid of Nature’s influences. The result is a community deserted, and the community deserted. We can start by speaking up for the Trees because the Trees simply cannot attend the Council meetings where such destruction is contemplated and enabled! Please have your say, because today there is one less Tree than yesterday.
