By LAURA WAKELY
BRIMBANK City Council is joining the fight against new regulations that would see electricity companies taking over street tree maintenance.
The recommendation was put forward by Energy Safe Victoria (ESV) as part of its bushfire risk mitigation in relation to electricity assets and comes after the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission found the fatal Kilmore East fire on Black Saturday began as a result of failed electricity assets.
But Brimbank Council says the ESV proposition is over the top and has little impact on electricity asset maintenance.
General Manager of Infrastructure and Environment Paul Younis, in a report to council, said councils in general were already complying with the Electric Line Clearance Code of Practice.
“This change is likely to undermine council’s management approach to street trees, defined within the Street Tree Policy 2010, which carefully balances the objectives of streetscape amenity and risk management,” Mr Younis said.
“The ESV discussion paper in no way considers councils $800,000 per annum increase in its tree management budget… so that pruning cycle time could be increased in order to comply with the regulations while maintaining the streetscape amenity.
“It is also considered that due to the investment council has made, its safety management and pruning practices are of a higher quality than that of the distribution companies.”
The Municipal Association of Victoria has been outspoken against the ESV proposal and in their submission backed the ability of councils to take electric line clearance “seriously”.
Administrator Meredith Sussex said Brimbank Council recognised the devastation of the Black Saturday fires, but that the ESV’s solution in no way acknowledged the causes of the fire.
She said electricity providers should be made to better maintain their assets.
“Instead what we’re doing is pursuing street trees in Brimbank. It seems crazy.”
