Power ‘cuts’

By Bridget Cook
The new regulations, introduced his year, require greater distances between street trees and electrical cables, resulting in a harsher pruning regime, and in some cases tree removal.
The council is now pushing to retain quality street trees and is calling on the State Government for help.
Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti said there needed to be a balance between the protection of electrical lines and the amenity value of the trees.
“Street trees are one way the council improves the environment, image and liveability of Greater Dandenong,” he said.
“We believe the new regulations will have a significant negative impact our city’s urban environment.
“The harsher pruning regime will also result in increased cost to ratepayers.”
Cr Memeti said the council would now call on the State Government to urgently review the new Electricity Safety Regulations.
He said it was also seeking an exemption from the regulations while the review was undertaken.
“The council understands that the changes were made to address the risk of damage to power lines,” he said.
“From the council’s perspective, we receive very few complaints from utility companies or residents about damage to utility lines.
“Based on this we have to assume that our existing practices, which are based on the previous regulations, code of practice and management plans are sufficient.”
A State Government spokes-man said there have been regulations about line clearance for many years.
“The clearance zones around most lines have not changed under the new regulations so if councils have been complying then the changes should not pose a problem,” he said.
He also said there was a long consultation period including an opportunity for councils to provide input before changes were made.