C’mon, this is our street, our home: Fed up residents sign a petition calling for an overgrown property to be cleaned up
FED up residents in Adelaide’s north east have created a petition, urging council to force the owners of an overrun property on their street to clean it up.
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REDWOOD Park residents want the owner of an overgrown vacant block on their street, which has grass more than 2m high, to be forced to maintain the site.
So fed up are the residents, they’ve lodged petition with Tea Tree Gully Council asking for action to be taken against the owner of the Sunhaven Rd property, saying it is a fire hazard and attracts snakes.
The petition said the block had been vacant for two years following the demolition of a house, which was severely damaged by an explosion.
“The block has remained unmaintained for this period of time, and we are concerned that the grass on the block has grown to a height of over 2m in places,” it said.
“In our view, this situation is a potential fire hazard and should be rectified by the owners of the block.
“The presence of long grass becomes a haven for snakes, and this is concerning given that there are young children living in the immediate vicinity.”
The 10-signature petition called on the council to force the property owner to cut the grass as soon as possible.
According to a council report, staff would inspect the vacant block and may issue a notice to the owner.
Under the Fire and Emergency Services Act, if the property owner fails to comply with a notice, they face a maximum penalty of $10,000.
The owner of the property could not be contacted for comment.
A suburban junk yard
A RIDGEHAVEN resident has been ordered to clean up his property after Tea Tree Gully Council filed a court order because it looks like a junkyard.
The council applied to the Environment, Resources and Development Court in August to serve a summons to Graham Lynton Moyle requesting all trailers, car bodies, scrap metal, tyres and general junk be removed from the Far View Crescent property within 60 days.
Following a conference last month, the matter was adjourned until February.
The council would not answer questions from the Leader Messenger about how many complaints it had received about the yard, how long it had been trying to get the owner to clean it up or how much it had spent on legal fees.
It is understood junk started piling up at the front of the property in 2009 before 2m high fences were erected.
Old cars, trailers, timber and furniture are strewn across the property’s backyard while an old in-ground pool is full of rainwater.
In an emailed statement, the council wrote: “it is a matter before the (court)”.
City development acting manager Cherie Gill said the council had received hoarding complaints for 10 properties across the district in 2015/16 and said “all were under investigation”.
Leader Messenger was unsuccessful in its attempts to make contact with the property owner.
Tea Tree Gully is the only council in the north over the past three years that has taken court action against a resident to force them to clean-up their property.
Salisbury Council investigated 23 complaints for “unsightly premises” in 2016, down from 47 in 2015 and 35 in 2014.
In 2016, the council issued six enforcement notices requiring the owners to clean sites but no court action was required because all the residents responded to the notices.
Playford Council issued three clean-up notices this financial year, three in 2015/16 and four in 2014/15.
“Council’s preference is to work with the property owner to achieve a mutual outcome but if that fails we take our legal responsibility seriously,” Mayor Glenn Docherty said.
Port Adelaide Enfield Council said it had not taken any clean-up matters to court.