Am I the only one who gets frustrated walking around suburbs? As I understand it, the rules include:
- vegetation must not grow over public footpaths;
- trees should be trimmed if lower than 2 metres above the path;
- nature strips should be accessible from the road for pedestrians;
- nature strips should only be landscaped with other than low level vegetation if approved and if it does not affect line of sight;
- footpaths must not be blocked for any reason including construction activity unless approved; and
- registered and non-registered vehicles (or any other materials) should not be left on the nature strip.
Where I live there would be at least fifty houses within a 500m radius that easily breach one or more of these rules. Some footpaths aren’t even visible. Many other properties plant hedges so close to the path that they inevitably breach the rules and at least force pedestrians to walk in single file when passing a property.
The ACT Government appears to react only when they get a complaint about a specific address. Obviously lodging a complaint about multiple addresses would be time consuming and seen as vexatious.
ACT Parking deal with registered vehicles and ACT Rangers deal with other offences including unregistered vehicles. On receiving a complaint, the first action seems to be to warn the offender rather than impose a penalty. The only time I made a complaint (because I nearly had an accident when my line of sight was blocked), the registered and unregistered vehicles were removed from the nature strip but were back again a month later.
Am I being unreasonable? If not, what is the solution?