By JESSE GRAHAM
A HEALESVILLE mother has called on the council to assess dangerous trees along River Street, which have repeatedly dropped large limbs in and around her property and on footpaths.
Brookley Scopel is asking the Yarra Ranges Council to find a solution to large trees on River Street and Glenfern Road in Healesville, which have dropped numerous large limbs on nearby properties.
The Mail reported incidents in 2014 and 2015 where an extremely large limb crushed Ms Scopel’s neighbour’s fence and obscured access to their driveway, and another dropped near her children’s play area in their backyard.
On Friday 4 March, another large limb dropped from one of the trees, smashing Ms Scopel’s fence and falling over the River Street footpath, about 3.30pm.
Ms Scopel said her child was walking home from school at the time, and heard the crack of the limb breaking off from inside her house. By the time she ran outside, the limb had fallen – though no-one was nearby at the time.
Speaking with the Mail later, she said one of the trees had a large dead limb hanging, and feared it would fall in windy weather.
“It’s hanging by a thread – that’s over the footpath,” she said.
Ms Scopel said the council’s arborist said they would visit her property to inspect the trees and cut away dead wood, but said the limbs that dropped had green leaves.
“He’s told me they can’t prune them, because of the risk of rot, but there has to be a question of safety here,” she said.
“They (the trees) look healthy enough – they’re huge, they’ve got plenty of water supply, but there’s a lot of weight up there.”
She said that the trees had been dropping large limbs for five of the 10 years she had lived on the street.
Over the years, Ms Scopel has said she did not want the iconic trees removed, but that a solution needed to be found, before someone was hit by a falling limb.
“I know this is an iconic street, (but) I’m fearful of somebody being severely injured by these limbs,” she said.
“If worse came to worse, and they had to be removed for the safety of everybody, there’s no reason why the street can’t remain an iconic street. Replace them with manageable, safe, beautiful trees.”
Ms Scopel said the recent damage to her fence was worth about $500.
Yarra Ranges Council’s director of Environment and Engineering, Mark Varmalis, said a recent meeting with Ms Scopel “went well”, and that an arborist was expected to visit the site this week.
“An aerial inspection of the trees, where the arborist gets up into the crown of a tree for further inspection, will also be undertaken,” Mr Varmalis said.
“Ms Scopel has offered to provide our arborist with access to the trees from her garden.”
The Mail has contacted the council for further comment.
