Council backflip: Grass height limits and old sheds reviewed

A rural council has backflipped on a series of bizarre local law changes after farmers voiced their concerns. See the latest.

A southeastern shire council has formally walked back draft local laws that would have penalised farmers for growing grass longer than 30cm and for not maintaining disused buildings on private property.

The South Gippsland Shire Council’s second draft of its local law changes was adopted by the council at a meeting this week, and is open to community consultation from today.

The draft includes amendments to a number of clauses, including a clause which initially stated grass could not be grown higher than 300mm to now exclude grass grown for fodder.

Another clause, where owners of private property must maintain unoccupied buildings and prevent them from becoming dilapidated, was also amended.

The draft clause focused on safety and amenity of buildings on private property, with the amendment clarifying the council would respond to reports of abandoned buildings or buildings that have deteriorated to a level considered to be unsafe.

South Gippsland Shire Mayor Clare Williams said the council first engaged with the community to draft the local laws in May this year, and took feedback into consideration before engaging with a consultant.

“I think maybe sometimes, we can read too much … into a local law. And I don’t think any officer would go out to farmland and say, your grass is over 30 centimetres, I want you to cut it today. They would never do that. They can use their common sense in knowing that they’re farming,” Ms Williams said.

Previous South Gippsland Shire Council Mayor Nathan Hersey. Picture: Supplied.

A council spokeswoman said Stubbs Consulting was engaged to draft the local laws, and had been operating in the area for about 17 years.

“Council officers have a fair bit of experience, but we’re not lawyers. Our knowledge is locally-based, and it gives us a better opportunity to look at what other councils are doing,” the spokeswoman said.

“As we’ve learned from the first round of consultation … sometimes the intent doesn’t quite make it into the wording. The intent of that first draft was never to include fodder.”

Councillor and farmer Scott Rae said the local laws were in a better spot since being redrafted.

“It’s actually come a long way, and is going in the right direction,” Mr Rae said.

“They’ve done well with rewording it, clarifying fodder doesn’t just mean grass, it means crops, turning, millet … whatever you’re growing. And stuff was taken out about dilapidated buildings, changed to actual danger as opposed to the visual amenity.”