Zoe Moffatt
The Hume community has called on council to be more specific about its new local laws in regards to the burning of offensive material.
At a meeting on August 14, Hume councillors voted to adopt the new general purpose local laws, which will come into effect on Monday, September 4.
Law 46 states a person must not burn, or cause or allow to be burned offensive emissions of smoke and odour to enter any neighbouring property.
Also a person must not place or use an incinerator, light or cause or allow to be lit, a fire in the open air on any land less than 4000 square metres without a permit.
They must also not light a fire on land 4000 square metres or greater in a designated bushfire prone area, except where the fire is lit for genuine fuel reduction purposes.
Council received an objection to the laws, which called for treated or painted wood to be listed as an offensive material.
“While the list of excluded items is not specifically limited to the items listed [in the laws], not listing items that are a known problem fails to address this current issue in the community,” the objector said.
“In fact it’s clearly viewed by the community that it’s more important to list the prohibition of burning treated wood than it is to food waste or fish, which is strangely specifically listed.
“This is obviously a concern of residents, particularly due to the high prevalence of online advertisements of treated pallets, fence palings and the like.
“These items are usually offered for free but often fail to mention that burning such items will release toxins.”
Cr Karen Sherry said the local laws have been developed with the intention to respond to key safety and amenity concerns, and these two laws work hand in hand to protect the community.
“For [private property open air burning] you have to have a permit and be on a pretty big bit of land,” she said.
“So I think that really does work well together to ensure we can protect the community from obnoxious fumes and other things associated with that.”
