Woollahra council threatens to fine residents over plants outside their homes
A council has threatened residents of an upmarket Sydney suburb with huge fines if they do not remove potted plants from outside their homes.
Commuters at Woollahra Council have cracked down on small businesses and affluent residents living on Underwood Street in Sydney’s inner city Paddington after a complaint was made about plants and furniture on the upscale street.
Nicola Harvey-Hall, who has lived in her terraced house for 15 years, was fined $635 for keeping potted plants outside her door.
“I really thought it was a joke,” Nicola Harvey-Hall said news.com.au.
‘I’ve never had a fine in my life. I don’t drive. The plants were beautiful. Everyone loved them.”
But now she is threatened with sheriffs coming to seize her worldly possessions and sell or withdraw the money owed from her bank account.
Commuters at Woollahra Council have cracked down on small businesses and affluent residents of Underwood Street in inner Sydney’s Paddington after a complaint was made about plants and furniture on the upmarket street (pictured: Tuckerbox cafe which was fined got about $1,500 for painting boxes for customers to sit on)
Meanwhile, a local cafe has been hit with two fines – amounting to around $1,500 – for placing boxes on the street for customers to sit on.
James Martin, who runs the Tuckerbox cafe, said the fines were ‘ridiculous’ and called on the council to ‘be lighter’.
“At the end of the day, we’re just trying to create a place where people can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee,” he said.
A Woollahra Council spokesperson said it is an offense to place anything on a road or footpath that could get in the way of people and is punishable by a fine of $635.
More than a dozen letters were also sent to individuals whose homes are on a laneway between Underwood Street and Dudley Street, ordering them to remove a community garden (pictured)
They added that a complaint had been made in December ‘regarding potted plants and furniture placed on footpaths’.
“Following a review by Council staff, a number of residents and businesses were contacted with a request to remove the items,” a council spokesperson told the website.
‘Writers were issued in mid-January to remove leftover items and fines were issued for non-compliance in February.
‘No further penalty notices have been issued.’
More than a dozen letters were also sent to individuals whose homes are on a lane between Underwood Street and Dudley Street, ordering them to remove a community garden.
But the municipality is now helping residents apply for a roadside garden permit.
Daily Mail Australia approached Woollahra Council for further comment.