By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
PAM Higgins thought something must be amiss when she spotted a tractor slashing the grass at the Homestead Road paddock she leases.
But the Berwick resident, who runs pony classes and lets her horses graze in the paddock, was told by the tractor driver on the weekend that he was contracted by Casey Council to slash the grass at 136-138 Homestead Road, after a Notice to Comply had been sent to the paddock’s owner in December.
Property owner Leo Malvaso claims he never received a Notice to Comply from the City of Casey and was never warned that the property’s grass needed to be slashed.
And lessee Ms Higgins also claims the council contracted tractor driver drove through the electric fence she had erected around the paddock, causing significant damage to it and making it unsuitable for her ponies to now be kept there because they may escape.
Ms Higgins’s horses were in another paddock at the time of the slashing.
Mr Malvaso said he had access to tractors and would have happily organised to have the paddock slashed had he been forewarned.
“I want to find out why this has happened and how,” Mr Malvaso said.
“If we’d been told, it would have been sorted straight away.
“It’s an empty block of land that Pam leases and I’ve never had to worry about it.
“I don’t have to check it every second day.”
Ms Higgins said she only noticed after the contractor had left that he had damaged the paddock’s electric fence which kept her horses from straying.
“I didn’t understand why he was mowing and I stopped to ask the driver what was happening, but it wasn’t until later that I noticed how he had gotten in there,” she said.
“There is an old gate he could have used to come through.
“My horses are hungry and this time of year grass tends to die so they need be able to be up there, they need that paddock.”
The City of Casey Community Local Law 2/2010 states that grass must be kept to a maximum height of 30 centimetres unless it is used for fodder.
Ms Higgins insists the paddock was used for her horses to graze.
City of Casey Manager Community Safety Caroline Bell said council carried out grass slashing, rubbish removal and weed elimination of blackberries at 136-138 Homestead Road on 18 and 24 January after a notice to comply was sent to the property owner.
“A Notice to Comply was issued to the property owner on 5 December 2013 after complaints from residents about long grass and large amounts of dumped rubbish at the site.
“At the time of the inspection, council officers also reported that the existing fence was in a poor state of disrepair,” Ms Bell said.
“The property was reinspected on 7 January 2014 and as the owner had failed to comply, council assigned a contractor to carry out the works.”
Ms Bell said a Notice to Comply allows a sufficient amount of time for the property owner to undertake the required works.
“Where council issues a Notice to Comply, it is mailed to the property owner using the address provided by them, to council.
“There is no way to confirm receipt of this mail as council recognises the address as current unless otherwise advised,” she said.
“Should the owner fail to comply in the allocated time, and there has been no request to council from the owner seeking an extension, council sends a contractor to undertake the work on their behalf and the account is sent to the owner in addition to infringements for the associated offences.”
