Purpose and Objectives
To establish guidelines where our company may approve the pruning, removal and replace trees and other vegetation in public reserves.
Scope/Coverage
This policy applies to all workers of our company including contractors, sub-contractors, trainees, apprentices, work experience students, volunteers and clients.
Policy Statement
Any owner or occupier of land within the district must not prune or remove vegetation or direct another person to do the same on public reserves within the district without first receiving approval by our company .
- Any owner or occupier of land within the district may apply to Council to have vegetation in public reserves pruned, removed and/or replaced. The application will be placed before our company for consideration and shall include an indemnification statement in accordance with the following:
- Our company will consider the application provided the following requirements have been adhered to:
- The City’s staff and the applicant have met on site to prepare a maintenance plan for the proposal;
- No more than 50% of each boundary length of any private property adjacent to public reserves may be removed at any one application and the pruning/removal cannot extend beyond a 30m parallel alignment of the private property;
- Any plant to be removed will be replaced with an alternative species approved by the company;
- The cost of the initial pruning, removal and/or replacement of vegetation, unless otherwise specified by the company, shall be borne by the applicant;
- The ongoing maintenance of the vegetation will be included in the Council’s maintenance programmes; and
- Where there is a conflict between preservation of vegetation on the reserve and preservation of panoramic views, the preservation of vegetation will have priority.
- Where the landowner/applicant does not have the approval to prune and/or remove vegetation or prunes and/or removes vegetation beyond the limit of their approval, then our company may prosecute under the provisions of the Local Government (Uniform Local Provisions) Regulations 1996 and the Activities on Thoroughfares and Trading in Thoroughfares and Public Places Local Laws 2001.
- Where the unauthorised pruning and/or removal of vegetation is within the Department of Parks and Wildlife’s (DPAW) areas of responsibility, all information will be forwarded to DPAW for potential prosecution.
- Where unauthorised pruning, vandalism, poisoning or removal of vegetation occurs within the City of Bayswater owned or managed land, the Director of Technical Services will take action as follows:
- Where the plant is less than 2m tall and/or less than four plants are vandalised, the City will install a tree vandalism sign of 0.6m x 1.2m for a period of 2 years.
- Where the plant is greater than 2m tall and/or more than three plants are vandalised, the City will install a tree vandalism sign of 3m x 3m for a period of 2 years.
- Write to affected residents in the vicinity advising of the poisoning of the tree(s) and the City’s actions in response to the vandalism
- A sign can be removed prior to the 2 year period if a resident applies to the City to replace the vandalised vegetation (of a similar size and species) at a 2:1 ratio at their own cost.
- The City is to construct and maintain suitable fire breaks in accordance with the current order of the Bush Fires Act 1954.