Bass Coast Shire Council inundated with fire clean-up permit inquiries
Bass Coast Shire Council has been inundated with inquiries about fire prevention permits from Melburnians with holiday homes in the area. With requests set to increase, here’s how to apply.
Bass Coast News
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Bass Coast Shire Council has been inundated with requests from property owners wanting to complete fire and emergency work on their land.
More than 2500 inquiries about how to apply for a permit flooded town hall on Monday, following Premier Dan Andrews announcement on Sunday that Melburnians could travel to regional Victoria to prepare properties for bushfire and flood maintenance.
Mr Andrews said regional councils would need to issue permits and discussion would be held from today.
Chief executive Ali Wastie told The Bass Coast News council was determining how the Travel Exemption Permits would be assessed.
“We expect the application form to be on our website from this Monday,” she said.
“Given that we’re expecting a high volume of applications, we’re asking people to please be patient while we work our way through them”.
Ms Wastie said applications may take up to five business days to complete and there will be no charge for permits.
Bass Coast has approximately 13,000 nonresident ratepayers and Ms Wastie said they will be only issuing permits for properties that need it.
“In line with the guidance provided by Local Government Victoria, we will be issuing permits to properties partially or wholly situated in a bushfire prone area, Bushfire Management Overlay or Land Subject to Inundation Overlay,” Ms Wastie said.
“These areas have been determined using scientific information and data, taking into account factors such as weather, topography and vegetation”.
Melbourne resident and Inverloch property owner Grant said the process was frustrating.
“As ratepayers we just want to come down, clean our gutters, maintain inside and out and check our properties as it’s been months since we’ve been able to travel to inspect,” he said.
“We just want to be fire ready for the months ahead.”
He said the Bass Coast Shire Council had been hard to contact with a generic voicemail set up for any fire property permit inquiries.
“After the announcement on Sunday, contacting the council is near impossible at the moment”.
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