HORSHAM Rural City councillors have questioned council’s responsibility for policing and enforcing state government native vegetation regulations.
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The government is reviewing clearing regulations to ensure they protect sensitive vegetation.
The regulations determine whether native vegetation can be cleared for development or other land uses and, if so, what requirements must be followed.
Horsham council has made a submission to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning about the review.
Council has called for additional government support to educate, monitor and enforce native vegetation removal.
It would prefer the state government be the authority responsible for enforcing regulations.
Council’s submission said limited resources, together with lack of dedicated enforcement staff, made it difficult to effectively enforce the requirements.
Horsham Cr Pam Clarke said council staff could not be expected to check on every farm and every tree.
“This really should be a state government issue. It’s impossible for us to maintain good regulation and police those regulations,” she said.
“A lot of these rules are breached daily, because there’s no-one out there enforcing them.”
Mayor Heather Phillips agreed.
“One of the main things is that council is expected to be the regulator and the prosecutor when it comes to the carrot and the stick,” she said.
“We run tree-subsidised programs, where farmers are eligible to buy 300 trees for 50 cents a tree for example.
“That’s the carrot.
“The stick bit comes that we are also the regulator if people remove trees without ‘calling before they cut’, or if they have bit by bit taken out a tree here and there over the years.
“Council doesn’t have the resources to adequately enforce state government regulations.”
Cr Phillips said another issue was that farmers paid considerable council rates.
“They don’t like paying rates to an organisation that, on one hand, is accepting their rates, and on the other threatening to prosecute them for chopping down trees so they can increase their farm productivity,” she said.
The department will consider feedback from councils and other groups before releasing updated regulations for public comment.