By ALESHA CAPONE
THE grass on a piece of Sunshine land was waist-high on Monday, but the plot thickened when the vegetation was cleared away on Tuesday.
Last week, resident Beverley Aird contacted Star because she was worried about the length of grass and weeds growing at 113 Fraser St in Sunshine.
Ms Aird said the patch of land was owned by Melbourne Water but usually voluntarily maintained by nearby residents, who won a fight to stop development occurring on the land in July last year.
“Since then, we, the neighbours have continued maintaining the land, not Melbourne Water, until our ride-on mower was out of action for a couple of months,” Ms Aird said.
“At this time Melbourne Water were notified that they would have to do the next mow while we waited for our mower to be fixed.
“We have hand-mowed an area directly behind our fences to keep down the risk of snakes and fire hazard while we still wait for Melbourne Water to come and clear.”
Ms Aird said she and surrounding neighbours have spent the past three months calling Melbourne Water about clearing the land – to no avail.
However, after Star contacted Melbourne Water last week, Ms Aird reported someone had turned up to mow the site.
“Sent to the media Monday, cleared Tuesday afternoon,” she said.
Melbourne Water’s maintenance co-ordinator David Leggo said the Fraser St land was mowed four times a year to follow high-growth periods, however warm weather and rain has recently “significantly accelerated growth”.
“Unfortunately, the scheduled October grass cutting was initially missed, however it was completed as soon as we were alerted to the situation,” he said.
“We will be mowing this area again in December.
“We encourage anyone with questions about our mowing program to contact us directly on 131 722.”
