OVERBEARING trees leaning towards Towts Road are causing concern for a Whittlesea resident, who fears stormy weather could cause them to fall on passing cars or pedestrians.
The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said he contacted City of Whittlesea Council two weeks ago, but had not heard about any affirmative action from council.
“I have watched these trees slowly increase in their leaning angle towards the road over three years, with the recent winds and soggy ground conditions, I believe they’ve slanted even more recently,” he said.
“The branches are seriously overhanging that even when a bus passes under them, the branches just miss the roof of the bus – a double semi-trailer is about one and a half metres higher than a bus – it would crash into branches quite easily.”
Council confirmed they received the resident’s complaint and referred the matter on to the relevant department.
The resident also said he was extremely worried about a dead tree also on Towts Road that sits three to four metres high up on an embankment, over passing traffic.
“A major branch fell from this tree about seven weeks ago, it took council six days to clear the debris,” he said.
“It’s an urgent matter, there’s a significant lean on these trees and myself and my family drive past these trees twice a day.
“With the recent spate of trees falling, killing and injuring people around Melbourne – council should be onto this quickly.”
A woman died in Princes Park, Melbourne, last month after an elm tree fell on her when she was walking to work. A mother of two was also killed after a tree fell on her car in Fernshaw.
In July, a father and son were killed after a large gum tree fell on their travelling car in Sherbrooke.
The City of Whittlesea responded saying they have raised a request for the trees to be inspected.
The council have about 110,000 street trees, 60,000 park trees and 2,500 significant red gums.
A spokesperson for council said they received a range of tree requests, some of them related to trees in poor condition.
“All are assessed individually, rural trees with leans are not uncommon in Whittlesea based on the large population of gums – risk assessment takes in a much broader range of factors,” the spokesperson said.
