ALTHOUGH not always rigorously enforced, Mornington Peninsula Shire has powers that enable it to be involved in many aspects of peoples’ daily lives.
Rules to manage alcohol use, parking, open air burning, and short-stay rentals are well known, but they also cover feeding birds in the backyard; leaving rubbish bins out for too long; and the need to provide council with details of anyone who is being given a cat or dog.
Anyone thinking of taking a three-day break may soon need to take account of rubbish collections. Bins must not be put out for more than one day before collection or left out after the following day in rewritten laws being considered by council.
In their updated local laws councillors want to cut the length of time someone may camp on private land where there is a dwelling from six months in any 12 months to one month.
Council also proposes giving itself (or an authorised officer) the power to allow camping “on a road or council land” in cases of homelessness.
“Hoon events” are recognised, with a ban on participation, attendance or encouragement. Drivers are also banned from parking within 200 metres of a vehicle involved in such an event.
Real estate agents might want to be aware that the local law will ban filming for commercial purposes from council land or a road without a permit (although the shire has not responded to The News about this).
In line with legislative requirements, council is seeking public comment on changes proposed for the local laws.
Among the changes sought is renaming the General Purposes Local Law to Community Amenity Local Law “to better reflect the intent of the majority of provisions contained within it”.
Although already subject to some minor changes, further reviews will be made this year of regulations applying to open air burning, incinerators and chimneys and, next year, short stay accommodation.
Many of the rules and regulations can be triggered by upset neighbours.
The bird feeding rule is being brought in because avian visitors to one person’s garden may be regarded as a nuisance next door.
So too with “housing” for animals – kennels, aviary’s, guinea pig hutches – which must not be attached to fences and be at least one metre from the boundary line.
The keeping of animals – cats, dogs, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, llamas, poultry, fowl (“or similar”) and cattle – is limited by a property’s size. Pigs are not allowed.
Occupiers of land must “ensure that any European wasps … are destroyed” and European honey bees are removed “unless the hive is registered with an appropriate body”.
The list of things regarded as making land “unsightly” has been expanded with the addition of disused excavations, incomplete building works, litter and waste, scrap materials, derelict vehicles and machinery, unregistered vehicles and graffiti. Already on the list was undergrowth higher than 20 centimetres and “any material of substance that makes the land out of character with the appearance of other land in the neighbourhood”, even if it cannot be seen by the neighbours or any “public place”.
Shipping containers need a permit as do vehicles – parked or being worked on – longer than 7.5 metres or weighing more than 4.5 tonnes.
In a statement, the shire says the peninsula is the third highest short-stay rental accommodation destination in Australia “and … receives complaints around short-stay abuse”, often about noise, anti-social behaviour, rubbish and damage.
In 2019, one property owner was fined $1500 over four breaches and another fined $2700 over 19 breaches.
The draft law for consumption of liquor sets out where and when drinking in public areas is allowed, and details exemptions and enforcement. It also covers restrictions on specific occasions, such as New Year’s Eve and Australia Day.
To view the draft local laws go to mornpen.vic.gov.au/locallawreview, or email LocalLawReview@mornpen.vic.gov.au, or write to Local Law Review, Mornington Peninsula Shire, private bag 1000, Rosebud, Victoria, 3939.
Community consultation closes 5pm 12 July.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 21 June 2022
