By MELISSA MEEHAN
THE TREES have been removed, but Emerald’s Worrell Reserve is not yet an official Neighbourhood Safer Place (NSP).
It is expected that the reserve will be named a designated NSP within the next two or three weeks, according to Cardinia Shire Council’s manager of community risk and emergency management Myles O’Reilly.
In the meantime, Mr O’Reilly said there was some additional vegetation removal underway to support the final designation.
“The vegetation removal was necessary to ensure Worrell Reserve complied with the criteria, specifically the need to ensure there is no significant threat from radiant heat,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“That is why the cypress trees were removed. Once this final vegetation removal has occurred the reserve will meet the criteria and can be formally designated as a NSP.”
The controversial removal of 50 trees has left a bare border to the oval, and it is expected that replacement trees could be planted as early as March 2014.
The council is yet to make a decision on what trees will replace the removed trees, but received more than 170 responses before community feedback closed on Friday.
Resident Mary Farrow said she and other residents were still disappointed about the removal of the trees. She said the council ignored the local significance of the trees and that it should have stopped the council from cutting them down. However, Mr O’Reilly said the council needed to weigh up bushfire safety objectives against heritage objectives in making the decision.
“We believe that the trees were symbolic of something bigger,” she said.
“Some are saying now the trees are gone, we can’t do anything but there are still a few things in play – the assessment of the NSP is ongoing.
“So now, the trees, for us, are a symbol of a failed process. If another building or piece of this community that had local significance, could it just be pushed aside to make way for whatever project the council wants?
“What about the bakery, the golf course, the maternal health centre? What happens there?”
Ms Farrow said just because the trees were gone, she and others in the community would not just walk away from the issue.
“Without the community, the NSP would not work; we need to be included in emergency management decisions.”
