Trees ‘a danger’

By Melissa Meehan
FALLING trees have a Nar Nar Goon resident calling on the council to act on what she says is a potentially dangerous situation.
Glenda Phillips says that over the past four months, eight trees have fallen across less than one kilometre of Mortimer Road in Nar Nar Goon North.
“I’ve contacted the shire offices on numerous occasions reporting this and have been told it will eventually be looked into,” Ms Phillips said.
“Meanwhile the trees keep falling.”
She said some trees were on such a lean that they were touching trees on the other side of the road.
As the weather warms up, Ms Phillips is also worried about what might happen in case of a bushfire.
“As Mortimer Road is our only access road we could be trapped if another tree falls before we are able to leave,” she said.
Ms Phillips said when she contacted the Cardinia Shire council in July last year, it removed trees from nearby Pooley Road – not the ones Ms Phillips complained about.
“It’s a concern,” she said.
“My husband trains horses. He was on his way to the track the other day with five horses on his truck when a car was flashing its lights at him, so he slowed down to find a woman had hit a tree.
“If not for flashing lights, he could have been in a serious accident – we just want council to remove the unsafe trees.”
Cardinia Shire spokeswoman Andrea Bortollin said the council had inspected the health of the trees on three occasions over the past six months and said they would be inspected again.
“Given Mortimer Road is not a high-use road, and the level of risk is considerably low, we believe the current inspection regime is satisfactory,” she said.
Ms Bortollin said the council regularly inspected its roads to determine if there were any hazardous trees. If one was found to be hazardous the council was diligent in removing or pruning them.