Clause 1 Planning has recently received multiple letters from the City of Stonnington that indicate Council intends to more fiercely enforce their tree protection and management procedures. We suspect that all recent permit applicants in the City of Stonnington would have received the same correspondence.
The letter states that, “Council has adopted a zero tolerance approach to dealing with any breach of vegetation related controls contained in a planning permit.“ It goes on to say “in the event of a breach the landowner, developer and any other relevant persons (such as subconsultants) will be liable to prosecution.”
Although Council has always had the power to enforce tree management and protection requirements, this correspondence makes it clear that permit applicants and their clients have been put on notice.
Clause 1 encourages all practitioners to ensure they understand when trees can be removed without a planning permit and the implications of a planning permit condition that requires vegetation to be protected, planted or pruned in a prescribed manner. Applicants should also be aware that more and more Councils are including permit conditions that require an arborist (or suitable qualified person) to undertake canopy and root pruning, where permitted.
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