Council splinters

By MELISSA MEEHAN
CITY of Casey councillor Geoff Ablett has accused fellow councillor Judy Owen of putting lives at risk by choosing unsafe trees over human life.
But Cr Owen says she knows people who would risk their own safety chaining themselves to the trees in question to stop them being cut down.
The accusation comes after Cr Owen put forward an “urgent business” motion at Tuesday night’s council meeting to stop the removal of 20 trees in Berwick’s Old Coach Road.
Cr Owen said it would be a “shameful episode” if the council went through with the plan to remove the trees, all listed as significant trees in the Casey Significant Tree Study 2011.
“This study has taken six years to complete, and it all seems like a waste of time if we can ignore it when we feel like it,” Cr Owen said.
She also said she had received an independent report on the trees in question by a well-respected arborist who stated the trees were perfectly healthy.
But Cr Ablett said the issue went back many years to when he was mayor.
“A tree came down onto a resident’s property, just missing his grandson and his wife,” Cr Ablett said.
“About 70 branches come down each year, he can’t go outside on a windy day – clearly this says the trees are dangerous.”
Cr Ablett said the trees should have never been planted at all, but it has now got to a stage where it is a safety issue and the council needed to decide whether they put trees in front of human life.
He said the council had received two reports claiming the trees were diseased and dangerous and needed to be removed.
“They will kill somebody,” Cr Ablett said.
“I don’t want to have to say we could have acted, but we didn’t.”
Not satisfied with his colleague’s claims that lives were at risk, councillor Simon Curtis asked why, if it was such a danger, it had taken three years for the trees to be removed and how an extra two weeks could be so detrimental.
“I was aware of this when Cr Ablett was mayor, but all of that time we have thought that the trees were safe,” Cr Curtis said.
“These are not just trees; they are among the most significant in Casey.
“It’s strange to see such a change in support for the trees. We’re not calling on the trees to be left forever, but just for three weeks until we get some more information.”
But the call for a halt to removing the trees came up against fierce opposition.
“Do you realise you are putting unsafe trees in front of human life?” Cr Ablett directed to councillors Owen and Curtis.
City of Casey CEO Mike Tyler said he was unsure where the council would stand legally if they knew about an issue but did not act if a tree fell onto the property causing injury or death.
“We can’t pass the blame on to anyone else,” he said.
“The council has to take action.”
In closing, Mayor Sam Aziz said he found it hypocritical that Cr Owen pushed so hard to remove trees in the Timbarra Estate because of the risk to human life, when the issues concerning the trees on Old Coach Road were similar – a claim Cr Owen strongly refuted on Wednesday.
“It is a completely different situation,” Cr Owen said.
“The trees are in a perfect condition, and important to Berwick.”
The motion went to a vote, with the call to halt the removal of the trees being defeated.
Councillors Owen, Curtis, Hastie and Keleher were the only ones to vote for the removal to be put on hold.