A report tabled at Tuesday night’s council meeting outlined council officers’ proposed changes to the General Local Law 2004.
The proposed amendments, which still have to go through a process of community consultation, would allow trading from a mobile service, on footpaths in the front of shops, and on council property during markets, festivals and events, subject to permit conditions and fees.
The amendments would also make it “an offence for any resident to allow a chimney to discharge ash or smoke which in the opinion of an authorised officer is regarded to be dangerous to health or offensive to others”.
Businesses that use shopping trolleys would be subject to stricter management under the proposed changes.
Trolley retrieval strategies would need to be updated annually, and from 1 July 2008 anyone supplying 25 shopping trolleys or more for customer use must only provide shopping trolleys which have either a coin mechanism or electronic wheel-locking device attached.
The council would gain the right to impound any discarded or abandoned shopping trolleys found in a public place.
Councillor Anthony Abate said some issues in the review were worthy of addressing.
“Shopping trolleys are littering our landscape,” he said.
Cr Abate said people had told him of St Albans residents taking shopping trolleys home with them.
However, Cr Abate, along with councillors Ken Capar, Marilyn Zukalski and Natalie Suleyman, questioned recommendations by council officers regarding chimney smoke and trading on footpaths.
“We are now going to police the emissions of smoke coming from our homes,” Cr Abate.
“This is democracy gone mad.”
Brimbank City development and statutory services general manager Peter Collina said the report was referring to excessive smoke coming from chimneys and health hazardous smoke from offensive fuels, such as wet timbers and pine.
“That provision in that proposed local law relates to complaints that council currently receives and will receive in the future regarding chimneys and smoke that comes from certain chimneys,” Mr Collina said.
“It won’t affect 90 to 95 per cent of chimneys (in Brimbank).”
Mr Collina said council officers would be able to use the new local law clause as a last resort to prevent people from continuing to burn offensive timbers.
Cr Zukalski said not all residents could afford to buy a ton of red gum, which is a non-offensive fuel, and said some pensioners had resorted to burning items such as old chairs because they could not afford anything else.
Councillor Costas Socratous said the council had received many complaints from traders where footpaths were very wide.
“They are losing opportunities to trade,” he said.
“They are losing business.”
Councillor Miles Dymott said an economic analysis showed Sunshine was struggling financially and this was an attempt to bring back shopping to suburban streets.
