The Blue Mountains City Council has joined resident groups in Sydney to renew calls for the tightening of land-clearing laws that have enabled many home owners to clear nearby bushland without a permit.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The so-called 10/50 clearing code allows people living in bushfire-prone areas to fell trees within 10 metres of any house and clear other vegetation out to 50 metres to reduce fire hazards.
Bending to a public outcry that many trees were being cut merely to improve views or boost a property's re-sale value, the government in November narrowed the areas covered by the code and asked the Rural Fire Service to review the policy.
However, the Blue Mountains City Council this week voiced its concerns again, with the council members unanimously passing a "mayoral minute" that noted the impacts of the code were cumulative but "not readily measurable" since residents aren't required to give notice of their clearing.
"This was meant to be about bushfire protection," mayor Mark Greenhill said. "It was not meant to be a new way of land-clearing with no regulation around it."
The relaxing of land-clearing laws was prompted by the 2013 bushfires, which destroyed close to 200 homes in the Blue Mountains.
The council's resolution, however, noted the RFS had told workshops last October that the service "could not verify" whether an earlier introduction of the 10/50 code "would have been a material difference in the property loss suffered by our community" in the fires.
The RFS declined to comment, other than to say the review is expected to be finalised by mid-2015. "All submissions are being considered as part of the review," a spokesman said.
Immediate suspension
Gaye White, a spokeswoman for Stop the Chop, called for an immediate suspension of the 10/50, saying the code was being abused by developers attempting to lift the value of their assets.
"Every time a property changes hands, you see another wave" of clearing, Ms White said.
Stop the Chop estimates Sydney's North Shore alone has lost 5000 trees, and says the review of the code should be done by a body more independent than the RFS.
Greens spokesman David Shoebridge said the Blue Mountain City Council's comments "just proves how misguided and ineffective the 10/50 laws are".
"The 10/50 code is just one part of the Coalition's ideological attack on the environment driven by its aggressive assertion of the right of property owners to do whatever they like on their land regardless of the impact," Mr Shoebridge said.
"There is absolutely no credible evidence that chopping mature trees up to 100 metres from bushfire prone land will reduce the likelihood of houses being lost to ember attacks," he said.
Stop the Chop's Ms White said the cleared vegetation is now being dumped within asset-protection zones, sometimes blocking fire trail access. "So much for bushfire preparation," she said.
Fairfax Media sought comment on the code from both Labor and the Liberal-Nationals Coalition.
The Blue Mountains council note also highlighted its requirement, under the World Heritage listing for the Greater Blue Mountains National Park, "to minimise impact on the protected areas".
"The council takes this responsibility most seriously, as it does the need to balance that responsibility with the need to manage the risk posed by bushfire," the mayoral minute said.
