The Yarra Ranges Council failed to deliver on requests for a report which said it wasn’t responsible for building damages in Warburton.
A single page summary from the report stated there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest the council’s cementing of a laneway in 2001 had caused damage to the adjacent 3377 Warburton Highway building.
But after the Star Mail asked the council to provide the full report, no acknowledgement of the report was given in the council’s response.
The report comes out of a longstanding dispute between the council and the residents of 3377 Warburton Highway, where the owners have traced building damage back to the cementing of the adjacent laneway in 2001.
Founding partner of Treehouse Nature and Healing Tate Jerrems has argued the council is liable for the damages to the Victorian Heritage listed building, whereas the council has claimed it’s too difficult to discern where the damages originate from.
Mr Jerrems was given the single page summary in November 2024 when council temporarily closed the laneway.
“They used their report, it was only one page, they didn’t release it to the public. It’s a report they promised us from 2022,” Mr Jerrems said.
A council spokesperson said the laneway remained closed while the council investigated potential traffic impacts on the adjacent buildings to the laneway.
“Yarra Ranges Council is currently evaluating next steps and community will be notified on any change in the status of the laneway.”
In order to prove the raised laneway has caused damage to the building, Mr Jerrems commissioned an independent engineering and architectural report to investigate the problem.
“Our engineering team come in and they’ve determined it’s bowing in and it’s still in movement so we’ve had to prop that so there’s actually water coming in all around the property,” Mr Jerrems said.
The report was conducted by architecture practice Wooster Architecture and Design and during investigations, an engineer from engineering company MTAconsult was present to aid observations.
“It is evident that the resurfaced laneway and inadequate stormwater management are causing significant and ongoing damage to the subject property,” the independent report’s summary stated.
The laneway next to 3377 Warburton Highway was closed in 2019 after a street sweeper struck part of the building, before it was reopened in June 2021 and then closed again in November 2024.
Attached to the agenda of the Council meeting in June 2021 was a report conducted by the civil engineering firm SMEC Australia, which recommended the full closure of the laneway – yet it was reopened anyway.
