Council would like to reassure the community that pruning around powerlines has always been, and remains, a priority.
Council works closely with a contractor to manage the pruning of trees around our region, to ensure electrical line clearance and safety for our community members.
We manage in excess of 20,000 trees for line clearance every year, with priority areas in central Healesville, the urban areas of Lilydale, Chirnside Park, Mooroolbark and Kilsyth, and the southern Dandenongs, including Belgrave, Belgrave South, Belgrave Heights, Upwey and Tecoma.
Wet weather conditions last year resulted in significant regrowth on many of the trees we have near power lines – in some cases, growth of up to three metres.
Regrettably, our pruning works misjudged these heights, and this led to eight trees not meeting the Code of Practice for Electric Line Clearance regulated by Energy Safe Victoria (ESV).
This meant that during an ESV inspection in February, eight trees did not comply with the clearance code. We were issued with eight work orders and a fine for this, which we promptly actioned – all eight trees now meet the code, and we’ll be working to ensure this does not happen again.
Safety around power lines is critical for everyone in the community – whether you’re a community member, a contractor working nearby or a Council keeping nearby trees pruned back.
