TWO Hobsons Bay residents are outraged by the response from council after their desperate plea to remove an overgrown eucalyptus tree that fell and destroyed their vehicle.
One of the trees boughs, located on the footpath out the front of Dale Pobega and Lynette Daws Yarra St home in Williamstown, collapsed on 29 December, 2012 and crushed the couple’s car.
The car was stationary and positioned in one of two designated council parking bays located beneath the tree.
Mr Pobega and Mrs Daws submitted their first complaint to council about the danger of the street tree in 2009 stating it was “shredding heavy swathes of bark, leaves and branches”.
Mr Pobega said they were in a state of disbelief after years of complaints about the public safety threat the tree posed in 2010 and 2011 had been “arrogantly brushed aside” by council.
Council removed one of the trees boughs after it was hit by a truck in 2010 but the couple believe this further destabilised the tree.
They said their pleas for the tree to be removed were not acted on.
“They did respond in writing but dismissively,” Mr Pobega said.
“We were worn down by the constant reassurances council gave us that the tree was completely safe even though we knew it was a disaster waiting to happen.”
Mr Pebega said another major concern was the tree and the two designated council parking bays were located in a school zone where children were regularly dropped off and picked up by parents.
Mrs Daws said it was “too serous a public safety issue to ignore,” and maintaining these types of trees should be treated with more observation than the council’s biennial inspections provide.
They want their unfortunate incident to be used as a stern warning to all Hobsons Bay residents.
“Insist that trees be removed because when disaster does strikes council is going to walk away from the whole problem – that is our experience,” Mr Pobega said.
The couple thought it was council’s responsibility to compensate them for the damages, however their claim below market value was denied.
Mr Pobega said they were told by council to conduct an alternative assessment to prove the tree was a danger, but that they had no time to organise one as it was removed within a week.
Hobsons Bay City council’s acting director organisation development Suzanne Patterson said council inspects and maintain street trees on a two-year cycle in accordance with their Street Tree Policy.
However Ms Patterson also said “additional maintenance can occur if a tree requires extra care or if a member of the community requests it”.
“I think the whole episode is a warning to residents in Hobsons Bay who have eucalyptus that they should be very worried about this,” Mrs Daws said.
“The point was this was an avoidable incident. They had knowledge of how dangerous that tree was through our complaints since 2009,” Mr Pobega added. “Now that something has happened Council wants to walk away from their responsibility.”
