The City of Casey has released a statement regarding long grass and fallen trees and branches following widespread community upset regarding the condition of the streets in the municipality.
Council said its mowing and maintenance schedule was making progress back towards regular program time frames.
The maintenance schedule has been adjusted to reduce the gap in between mowing with sites in the north of the municipality to be mowed every three weeks.
By mid-February, all parks in central Casey will have been mowed since the new year and from then on will be mowed every four weeks.
“Our priorities remain servicing the sites with the longest time frames in between services and ensuring that we are routinely visiting all our parks and reserves,“ the statement said.
Council received more than 5200 customer requests for storm and tree related assistance between October and December 2021, which is greater than 50 per cent of the volume of requests that council received for the entire 2020/21 financial year.
A backlog of 1200 jobs still remain as council works towards a return to normal service levels and programs prior to the end of February.
“As we maintain a focus on completing the backlog, delays may be experienced in attending to the additional 1300 requests that have been received since late December 2021,“ council said in the statement.
Ken Smart was one such resident who felt let-down by the council.
Mr Smart first alerted the City of Casey on Thursday 4 November that he had tree branches to be cleared on his nature strip in Lawless Drive in Cranbourne as a result of storms that hit the area in October.
He had been told on multiple occasions by the council that the branch has been cleared, but photos taken on Wednesday 2 February prove that this was not the case.
Council staff removed the branches on Friday 4 February and apologised to Mr Smart, attributing the confusion regarding his complaint to an “administrative error,” according to Manager for City Presentation, David Richardson.
“With the use of additional resources we are continuing to work through these requests while also proactively inspecting streets to identifying damage,” Mr Richardson said.
“Residents are encouraged to contact the council if they believe the situation they originally reported has become more urgent (possibility of causing harm to persons or damage to property) or if they are unsure if the matter has previously been reported to Council.
“We expect the storm damage clean-up works will continue throughout February and March.
“Residents can also visit our Report an Issue page (casey.vic.gov.au/report-issue) on our website to report any issues.“
