In the great scheme of things, Item 9.10 of the current agenda is trivial and far from earth shattering. Yet, it is a microcosm of the rot that distinguishes this council and its administration. The report is about fences on borders and whether Council should include information on its website that residents can access. Hardly revolutionary, hardly controversial and hardly likely to bring down the citadel. Yet the report (written once again by Mr Anonymous!) recommends the usual – do nothing!
Even with something so basic, the report is skewed and peppered with woeful logic, plus a disdain for residents that comes through strongly and clearly.
The arguments for doing nothing are quite literally appalling, childish and contradictory. There’s no need for council to do anything because residents can use ‘Google’ to get the required information, plus –It would be uncommon for members of the public to go, in the first instance, to the Glen Eira Council website to search for information on boundary fences. Really? Then why claim a few sentences later that council is frequently called by residents on such matters as gas, transport, centrelink, etc. If residents don’t know who is responsible for these latter areas and call council, then why should they have any more ‘legal’ knowledge about fences?
We’re then told that the job of council is to direct callers to the appropriate authorities. All well and good – but residents might not call – they might simply go to the website looking for information!
The final kick in the guts to residents comes with these gems of paragraphs –
The purpose of Council’s website is to provide residents with information about issues that Council can assist with. It is not to provide them with information on every issue that may affect them, such as dividing fence issues.
If residents were to see information on issues that Council has no control over, such as dividing fences, then it may lead to the question – “If Council can’t help me then why do they have information about it on their website?”
It follows that placing information on Council’s website about boundary fences warrants placing information on the website about other non-Council controlled matters. Taken further, it could be argued that Council’s website should include information about income tax returns, or passport applications; matters which are also important to the community.
Of course, nowhere in this mass of puerile logic will readers find one statement about fences that sit on the border of council and private land and council’s responsibility to pay for half, or to compensate owners when their trees damage private fences. That aspect of important information for residents does not rate a mention. Search the website and all that one can find relates to the mandatory fences around swimming pools.
How such drivel and disdain for the public can be allowed into the public domain is beyond belief. It is arrogance of the highest order that in our view even surpasses the arrogance of the Melbourne Racing Club. In Glen Eira, residents simply don’t matter except as the permanent cash cows to keep such anonymous authors in a job!
And what on earth is the problem with putting up a single webpage? Surely this could have been done much cheaper without a ‘request for a report’ and some bean counter spending an hour or two devising a way to say – get stuffed? How much did his time cost ratepayers?
Thankfully, not every council is so toxic and anti-community as Glen Eira. After a perfunctory search, here are the URLs for information on fence borders that all these other councils think is worthwhile to put up on their respective websites.
http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/living_in_bayside/building_in_bayside.htm#Fences
www.kingston.vic.gov.au/…/Fences_Boundary_Rules_Info_Generic.pdf
http://www.frankston.vic.gov.au/Planning_and_Building/Building/Fences/Dividing_Fences
http://www.monash.vic.gov.au/Building-Planning/Building/Installations/Fences
http://www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au/Fence-Requirements.html
http://www.knox.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.aspx?Page_Id=931
http://www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Planning_Building/Building_services/Around_the_home/Fencing
http://www.maroondah.vic.gov.au/FencingRegulations.aspx
http://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/Planning–Building/Building-services/Fences/
http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/planning-building/building-renovations-and-extensions/fencing/
http://www.melton.vic.gov.au/Regulations/Rates_and_payments/Fencing_information
www.buloke.vic.gov.au/neighbours-the-law-and-you
http://www.manningham.vic.gov.au/fences
http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/fencing.htm
http://www.mrsc.vic.gov.au/Council_the_Region/Laws_Regulations/Fences
https://www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/building-planning-and-transport/building/fences
http://www.corangamite.vic.gov.au/index.php/council-services/building-a-planning/building/fencing
http://www.latrobe.vic.gov.au/Search?keyword=fences
http://www.nillumbik.vic.gov.au/Building_and_Planning/Building/Fences
http://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.aspx?Page_Id=8602
http://www.glenelg.vic.gov.au/Neighbouring_Fences
http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Property-owners/Owner-Responsibilities
http://www.alpineshire.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.aspx?Page_Id=1922
http://www.hrcc.vic.gov.au/building-services/fences
http://www.colacotway.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=4762&h=1
Glen Eira Debates 
August 8, 2015 at 7:45 AM
you got it, lazy and anti-resident from the CEO down, nothing will change until that joke of a CEO shows some leadership, and since that has not happened, we can expect it to never happen, sack the lot of them, incompetence costs us money
August 8, 2015 at 10:40 AM
Message here is to councillors to reinforce who’s in charge. You guys asked for a report so cop this. Would be a very brave soul to say this is crap and we want it on the website.
August 8, 2015 at 11:09 AM
Going back a couple of years there was a story in the leader about some old guy claiming that councils tree had ruined his front fence and that it would cost thousands to fix. Council fought him tooth and nail and only offered to pay a fraction of the cost. Does anyone know what happened on this?
August 9, 2015 at 8:21 AM
Yet another fine example of Council doing an excellent self promotion job while not providing a service to residents. The purpose of Council’s website is “to provide information about services that Council can control AND ASSIST WITH … it is not to provide them with information on every issue that may affect them”.
Has any Councillor or Administrator considered that the cost of producing this 3 page piece of crap and having it discussed at a Council Meeting is a blatant waste of ratepayers funds.
Quite honestly,
. why does a simple administrative issue (that must surely fall within the delegated day to day operations of Council) get this much attention?
. what nitwit (or nitwit Committee) interpreted “AND ASSIST WITH” so narrowly that it excludes providing a sentence (or two) and a link to the appropriate authority on Council’s website.
. why is there no proposal to put the top ten FAQ’s that are redirected to other authorities up on Council’s website.
August 9, 2015 at 8:47 AM
Every decision made by this council is put to a “risk management ” test. If there is the slightest risk that some lawyer will knock on their door with a writ it is scrapped. This includes what their website tells people.
They are obsessed. Remember the Jewish blokes having a knockabout footy game on Sunday’s. Kids playing on sporting grounds you name it.
August 9, 2015 at 1:14 PM
100% correct
August 10, 2015 at 9:56 PM
Fences are part of Council’s role, functions, powers and duties, and covered by the objectives LGA lays down for councils. They appear in Planning Schemes, in policies and decision guidelines. Certain properties have Heritage Overlays simply because of their fences. Fences are mentioned in 6 different local laws. The councils GECC likes to compare itself with have information about fences on their websites. As reports go, this one is particularly unhelpful.