green light for green waste

I attended a Pray Evening Community Gathering for bushfire victims on Monday night, an ecumenical service provided by local churches from across the Yarra Valley and Lilydale. It is important that the community takes the time to come together and reflect on this terrible tragedy.

Over 400 people attended the Pray Evening Community Gathering at the Lilydale Showgrounds.

It was only the night before a fire took hold in Sherbrooke Forest, many in our community deciding to leave the mountain. At the time of this fire I was in Warburton attending a community meeting about fire activity in their region. I was relieved to learn the resources committed to fighting the fire in the Dandenongs were extensive and thanks to the amazing efforts of the CFA only 3.5 hectares of forest were burnt.

I have been very concerned about the levels of stockpiled green waste in the Dandenong Ranges, much of it due to the recent extreme weather conditions.

As a response to the immediate need for residents of the Dandenong Ranges to offload stockpiled green waste I raised the issue with council at a meeting last night. It was agreed to offer half price green waste disposal at tip and transfer sites across the Shire.

Details of the green waste disposal are:
 The greenwaste disposal charge will be $10/cubic metre for Wesburn, Healesville and Lysterfield (it's usually $35/cubic metre at Lysterfield) - and $42/tonne at Coldstream.
 Staff at all of the transfer stations including Lysterfield will require residents to provide ID (whilst there is a load limit on individual visits there is no limit on the number of visits).
 These arrangements will be in place for 3 weeks starting Saturday 21 February, concluding Sunday 15 March.

I hope that residents will take up the offer to ease some of the angst in the community about the levels of fire fuel in the Dandenongs.