clean up for fire season - free green waste tipping

Residents can now take advantage of free green waste tipping across the Shire of Yarra Ranges. From the 10th October through to the 8th November residents can take their green waste to Coldstream, Healesville, Wesburn and Lysterfield Transfer Stations for no charge.

I encourage residents to take up the offer to make their properties free of fire fuels. Now is the time we should all be making a concerted effort to remove bark, leaves, twigs and dead undergrowth around our properties.

Over the weekend Selby CFA, along with environmentalists and local residents, raked up fire fuels and then burnt them along the weedier edges of the Selby Park. This is a follow on from the work the brigade has done along Nation Road. This project is being considered as a pilot for other appropriate sites in the shire. It is a great example of agencies, environmentalists and residents working together to make communities more fire safe.

Like many Shire reserves, Selby Park contains some very significant flora and high conservation areas, these areas were carefully raked to remove fire fuels without compromising the environmental values of the site. Here myself, the CFA, Shire and local environmental expert, Darcy Duggan, discuss the level of fire fuel required to be cleared to achieve a reduced fire load without compromising the environment.

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It was a great example of agencies working together to achieve a positive outcome for our community.

free tipping for fire fuel coming soon

report from the roundtable - 25 Aug

On Tuesday night I moved a motion to improve green waste disposal in the shire to facilitate broader and easier disposal of fire fuel. The review of the Shire's green waste services came about from a motion I moved back in February, 2009. Last summer residents in the fire danger areas had to cope with massive amounts of fire fuel with few options to get the fuel off their properties. As a result of Tuesday night's motion residents will be able to take up the option of free tipping for green waste for one month. The free tipping will coincide with the government's cleanup week, starting on the 11th October.

240litre green waste bins are a great way to get rid of fire fuel throughout the summer.

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We will also be encouraging residents with small green waste bins to upgrade to the larger bins. I was surprised to learn that many residents who use the green waste service only have small bins, this will provide them with an opportunity to double the capacity at only an additional $15 per year.

The motion was supported unanimously and is a very positive step forward. I think it provides residents with a suite of options to manage fire fuel on their properties. Looking at the data in the report, residents found by far the most successful way to rid their properties of fire fuel was through free tipping arrangements, approved by the Shire earlier this year for the 08/09 fire season.

Those who live in residential bushland or rural areas can also utilise burning off for fire fuel reduction as well as green waste bins and free tipping. I encourage all residents to start now to make sure your property is free of fire fuel. If you want to know what constitutes fire fuel, the CFA has a wealth of information online.

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I urge residents to start cleaning up now, I know I am.

clean up time now

It's time for people across the Dandenongs to clean up their properties for the upcoming fire season. Many of us last season were caught unawares by the early declaration of the fire danger period and missed the opportunity to dispose of fire fuel by burning off.

Don't wait for Mr Brumby's clean up week from the 11th to 18th October, the time to act is now. Remember making your property fire ready means getting rid of the fire fuels, the twigs, the leaves, the bark, the dead undergrowth on your property (for more info on fire fuels and other things you can do to make your property fire ready visit the CFA website).

The Shire of Yarra Ranges allows residents in Bushland Residential and Rural areas to burn off, but remember burning off is permitted for fuel reduction purposes only. You should never burn when the wind speed is more than 15km/h and make sure your fire is supervised at all times by an adult.

You must ensure that water supply from a hose or a container with at least 10 litres of water must be available at the site of the fire.

Your fire must not cause nuisance through excessive smoke outside of a property boundary or create a hazard on a public highway and burning wet or green vegetation and other materials which produce excessive smoke is prohibited.

Remember NO BURNING ON SUNDAY.

For more info on burning off in Yarra Ranges click here.

There are also other ways to dispose of your fire fuels, consider if it can be recycled, mulched or composted? Or perhaps you'd like to wait for the free tipping service in October, 2009.

Back on the 24th February, 2009 I successfully moved the following motion:
That Council:

1. Investigate:

(a) The provision of a weekly green waste bin service over the fire danger period.

(b) Alternate ways for residents to dispose of fire fuel loads.

2. Review the success of the current bundled green waste collection.

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The results of that review will be considered by council at this week's meeting on Tuesday 25th August, I'm pleased to report that residents will be given the opportunity to dispose of their fire fuel with free access to the tip for one month from the commencement of the clean up week on the 11th October. Residents will also be encouraged to upgrade their 120 litre green waste bin to a 240 litre bin (at an additional annual cost of $15) to assist with the removal of fire fuel over the fire season.

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Although not voted on yet, I certainly will be supporting the recommendation. It is essential that we do all we can to assist residents with fire fuel reduction.

I urge residents to start the clean up now, take advantage of council's green waste fortnightly collection, bundled branch collection and free tipping too.

report from the roundtable – 24 Feb

My regular update on the council meeting, this week:

Report from delegates:
I attended the Blue Dandenongs Young Filmmakers Festival held in Belgrave on the weekend, for the first time ever the event was sold out, it’s a great event which has been supported by the Shire since its inception.

Me with newly elected President of the VLGA, Cr Rose Iser of Moonee Valley City Council.

I reported back to council that I have been elected as Chairperson of the Eastern Transport Coalition, Chairperson of the Eastern Regional Libraries Corporation and Treasurer of the Victorian Local Governance Association. I am very much looking forward to these roles in the local government sector.

I visited the relief centre set up in Lilydale and what struck me was the shire staff there from a myriad of areas such as statutory planning, IT, social planning, economic development, recreation, rangers, all working together to assist our community. It is a tremendous effort, our staff are going well beyond the call of duty and are to be congratulated for their efforts.

I also spoke about the rapid set up of the Ferntree Gully Relief Centre in response to the fires in the Dandenongs, I thank the staff for their efforts in dealing with the 350 people who had registered at the centre.

Planning application for construction of bridge on the Warburton Rail Trail:
At this meeting council had to consider an application from VicRoads to build a bridge over the Maroondah Highway in Lilydale to rejoin the Warburton Rail Trail. The site is very constrained and construction would mean the removal of 34 trees.

I was supportive of the application. I thought that VicRoads had done as much as they possibly could to limit the removal of vegetation and were to be commended for it.

If we are genuine about walkability and cyclability, getting people active, this application must be supported. It has been shown time and time again that if people are given the option to walk they will walk, the public health benefits are enormous.

Having well connected shared trails throughout the shire increases the liveability of our area and has major positive benefits all round. I’m pleased to say that council voted unanimously for the bridge construction to go ahead.

Late items: Green Waste Disposal part 1
Last week at our council forum (a private meeting of council) I raised the issue of free green waste disposal across the shire to enable residents to get rid of the increased amounts of fire fuel. I was disappointed when the majority of my colleagues did not support the idea of free green waste disposal but compromised with a $10 per cubic metre charge.

Fuel loads across the Dandenongs are high, not necessarily from poor management, a week of over 40 degree temperatures topped off by the weather conditions of Black Saturday have seen much vegetation die off and the Dandenongs have become a tinderbox.

We need to facilitate the offloading of all this fire fuel and free access to green waste disposal at our tips and transfer stations is a good solution which I hope residents take advantage of. 35,000 people live across the Dandenong Ranges and it is important to do as much as we can to assist residents with managing their green waste through this fire season.

My colleagues had a change of heart with a majority of councillors supporting the waiving of the fees for green waste disposal at tips and transfer stations (up to the 15th March, 2009).

Late items: Green Waste Disposal part 2
As a follow on from one of our public submitters, concerned about the management of green waste in the Dandenongs I moved the following motion:

Resolved on the motion of Crs Dunn and Cliff
That Council:
1. Investigate:
(a) The provision of a weekly green waste bin service over the fire danger period.
(b) Alternate ways for residents to dispose of fire fuel loads.
2. Review the success of the current bundled green waste collection.

I’m pleased to say council supported the motion and I look forward to the results of further investigations. We need to look at new ways to manage our green waste, this summer has shown that current services aren’t appropriate for extreme weather conditions and I suspect we will experience more extreme weather in the future as a result of global warming.

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.