Page 4181 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 September 2017
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(b) N/A.
(c) No, Access Canberra will not consider this matter to be finalised until the CoU is issued following the completion of construction. Again, when an application is made for a CoU, this will be flagged with Access Canberra and an inspection will be undertaken of the property. The CoU will not be issued if any non-compliance is identified.
Upon completion of the works and issuance of a CoU, Access Canberra can undertake spot audits to assess ongoing compliance with the requirements of an approved DA.
Municipal services—private gardens
(Question No 590)
Ms Le Couteur asked the Minister for Transport and City Services, upon notice, on 25 August 2017:
(1) Under what circumstances does the Government contact private home owners regarding the state of their garden.
(2) Does the Government have any power to compel private home owners to maintain, improve or rectify their own gardens.
(3) If a private home owner’s garden is overgrown with weeds that are threatening to spill over into other private properties or onto public land, what recourse do neighbours and the Government have against the home owner.
(4) In the event where a private hedge line is adjacent to public land (for example a footpath or strip park), can the Government compel the private home owner to maintain the hedge line to a standard that allows the adjoining parkland to be useable by the local community.
Ms Fitzharris: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) Contact is made by City Rangers in circumstances where the state of the garden on a residential lease is impacting on public land, for example where overgrown vegetation located on a lease is causing an obstruction or safety issue on public land.
(2) Under the Public Unleased Land Act 2013, residents may be directed by City Rangers to rectify issues impacting on public land, for example, to prune overgrown vegetation located on their lease that is causing an obstruction or safety issue on public land.
(3) Managing the impact of overgrown weeds between adjacent leases is generally a matter for the respective residents to negotiate. The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) has the power to hear and determine applications for neighbourhood disputes, such as overgrown hedges that may have caused damage to a shared fence. Managing the impact of overgrown weeds from a lease onto public land could be addressed by the Government via the Public Unleased Land Act 2013 as described in response (2) above, if it presents a safety or other issue. In general, the Government expects the nature strip adjoining a residential lease to be maintained by the resident.
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