A former councillor has questioned if a new Indigo Council plan will prohibit residents from collecting firewood from land at the front of their own rural properties.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The draft roadside firewood collection plan has proposed a ban on getting firewood from certain “council managed road reserves”.
But Barnawartha’s Emmerick Teissl wants to know if the new rules would apply to those with properties which had the reserves as “roadside frontage”, especially if they would need a permit to remove storm-damaged trees that had fallen onto fences.
He wrote to the council this week, responding to the call for public submissions, to express his own concerns and ask for an explanation.
“Are property owners with roadside frontage expected to clean up the debris left behind by those with firewood permits?” Mr Teissl said.
“We have many environmentally-conscious residents residing within Indigo Shire who look forward to your response.”
Indigo Council’s plan was to charge a firewood collection free, which has not been revealed, and designate collection areas, which would change periodically and include storm-damaged reserves.
“The roadside firewood collection plan aims to balance our community’s need for firewood and the environmental impacts on our road reserves with high environmental values,” the draft report stated.
“The collection of firewood along road reserves has been identified as an activity that carries a degree of inherent risk and cost to Indigo Shire Council.
“The current processes have proved difficult to administer, difficult to comply with, and has not had a lot of use by residents.”
