No notice for council visitors

By Bridget Brady
CASEY Council has quashed the suggestion of giving residents a heads-up before they make any visit to their property.
Casey’s manager of community safety, Caroline Bell, in her report to council said providing notice in advance would have a detrimental impact on the council’s ability undertake its regulatory duties.
Officers have the authority to obtain and execute search warrants for a number of offences to ‘arrest’ people if required and a local laws officer may carry out surveillance during the day or night to gather evidence for prosecution, such as for an overgrown vegetation case.
“Giving notice would enable the landowner sufficient time to remove the vegetation either by burning or moving it off-site, thus destroying the evidence required for a prosecution,” Ms Bell said.
Councillor Geoff Ablett raised the issue at a council meeting and called for the new policy after a resident contacted him about an officer’s visit to their property while they were not home.
Cr Ablett has now said residents should be kept in the loop with any visit made to their property, and would like to see an officer leave a note with the day, time and reason for their visit to the property so the owner was aware of any issue. This motion was passed at the council meeting on Tuesday night.
“A card being left with an explanation and reason for the visit – I think that’s reasonable,” Cr Ablett said.