By DANIELLE GALVIN
OVERGROWN grass and the threat of snakes on a vacant block in Holm Park Road Beaconsfield has a group of residents concerned this fire season.
The block of land backs onto Carol James’ property in Lakeview Terrace and borders six other residences.
Last week, Ms James thought she smelt smoke and said it was common for her and her husband Glen to worry that a fire had started on the property that would spread to their back fence.
“It covers about three average blocks,” she said. “There are seven properties affected by it.”
Ron Bowman and his wife Betty live on Domain Circuit and he said it would be a task for the property owner, or the Cardinia Shire Council, to clean it up.
“There would be a lot of work involved to clean it up,” Mr Bowman said.
There are blackberries at the back of the land and the group believes that there is also a risk of snakes.
“It would take a lot of work to remove it all,” Mr Bowman said.
Ms James said she had contacted the council at the beginning of November to try and get the property cleaned up or its fire danger assessed.
“Council is all about getting your property fire ready and then there is this block behind us which is an absolute fire hazard,” she said.
“There are a lot of people with grandchildren around and there’s the chance that the property would harbour snakes or vermon in there.”
Martin and Caroline Knox have two young children, Riley and Emily, and a pool on their property.
“Our main problem is the fact that there could be snakes in there,” Ms Knox said.
Mr James said it was an ongoing issue for the residents, who had often hassled the council to get onto the property owner and clean it up.
He said it was usually cleared once a year.
The shire’s community, risk and emergency safety manager Myles O’Reilly said the council had a priority register for sites that needed to be inspected.
“If it is made known to us and it is required that there be an inspection, it is placed on a priority system which operates throughout the shire,” he said.
Mr O’Reilly said he appreciated that it could be a frustrating process but that the property owner was given 28 days after receiving the notice to clean up their property.
“It would be great to shorten that process,” he said.
Mr O’Reilly said if they failed to clean up their property within that time frame, the council would issue a fire infringement notice.
He said changes to the CFA Act (1958) meant fines for property owners had increased to $1400. He encouraged residents to contact the council if they had any concerns about properties in the shire.
