In response to the council strategy, Mr Coyle has highlighted the area’s vulnerability to fire.

“While I accept the city wishes to preserve these hills it should be remembered that these assets also create the urban-rural interface which the management of, will determine the intensity and consequence of major fires that impact on the residential areas of Wodonga,” Mr Coyle told council in an email.

Referring to the Hunchback complex and Federation Hill in his Wodonga West brigade area, Mr Coyle wrote that he was not opposed to any particular activities.

But he does believe “encouraging camping, public fire places and vehicle access/car parks within the reserves … will increase fire starts in the area and should not be included in the strategy”.

Mr Coyle believes broadacre tree plantings and livestock exclusion areas will increase the fuel load and fire risk in the hilltops.

“This will lead to a higher intensity fire and greater losses when fires reach the residential areas, and make these fires harder to control,” Mr Coyle wrote.

He questioned the council’s liability in the event of a fire.

“By inviting the public on to their land the council can reasonably be expected to hold a moral and legal responsibility for their safety in the event of a major fire,” Mr Coyle wrote.

“How will the council restrict access to these areas on days of elevated fire danger and evacuate those that are there?

“What are the legal and moral liabilities on council for the accountability of fires that start on these lands and the intensity and impact of them as a result of their management?”

At the council’s last meeting, past mayor Rodney Wangman lashed the Victorian government over fire planning and a lack of factoring in Albury as a refuge.

“I do believe that regular requests to the state government and to the person in charge of this, Craig Lapsley...have gone unheeded,” Cr Wangman said.

“I still believe wholeheartedly that some of the many plans….put in place by the state government of Victoria about the care and attention to safety of our community are flawed.

“So when we sit here and try to work on some of these things about emergency management we’ve almost got one armed tied behind our back.”