A Werribee resident is having a turf war with Wyndham council over two trees on his nature strip that he says are a hazard.
Tibor Kovacs said the trees in front of his Briardale Drive home, which each stand as tall as his double-storey property, regularly make a mess of his front yard because of all the pine cones and needles dropping down.
Mr Kovacs is also concerned that he, or a passer-by, will be hit by a falling pine cone.
“I’m just waiting for someone to be hit by one of those cones. They’re quite heavy,” he said.
Mr Kovacs has called on the council to remove the trees, but to no avail. He said it took four council staff 90 minutes to remove the pine cones from the trees last week, an action he believes is a waste of ratepayers’ money.
Under the council’s local laws residents cannot cut down, damage or undertake any major pruning of trees on their nature strips.
Wyndham council city operations director Stephen Thorpe said the trees had been pruned by council staff six times over the past five years and were being monitored annually in response to Mr Kovacs’ concerns.
“The trees … have been cut back as far away from his fence line as possible without compromising their health and strength,” Mr Thorpe said.
“Each year council invests significant time, energy and money into planting more trees throughout Wyndham.
“This year we will be planting more than 3500 trees on nature strips in Wyndham and mature trees are highly valued, so we only remove them as a last resort.
“Residents can lodge a request with council for a tree to be removed, after which we will inspect the tree and remove it only if we identify a need that matches our criteria.”
