Hundreds at annual Cairns businesswoman of the year awards Sympathy for

Tree Crush Man

l STRATFORD

READERS on Facebook have sympathised with Holloways Beach resident Adelhay Battal after a tree and powerlines fell onto and wrote off his car at Stratford earlier this month.

A compensation claim has been rejected by Cairns Regional Council which has now agreed to an internal review of his application. The $7800 Ford Territory SUV was not insured.

Dawn Marr said a tree fell onto her car in Macrossan St, Port Douglas.

“Douglas Shire Council would not even pay my excess,” she said.

Damon Thompson said “this exact thing happened to me and after 12 weeks of fighting I gave up”. Council has a clause that translates roughly to ‘we don’t have infinite resources, so we can’t realistically be expected to be responsible for damage caused by any tree in the shire’,” he said.

Craig Mann-Jones said he had been arguing with the council for three and a half years about trees on their property damaging his.

“The claims process is not fun, and they will not attend to the trees unless they are damaged or rotten,” he said.

“Have been blocked in my driveway for hours due to them falling over. Have had some joy, but still taking them up on the issues. Good luck.”

Bel Glen said as a ratepayer “I would expect compensation”.

Dog rego reminder

Dog owners are reminded they have until 31 July to renew their dog registration for the 2023/24 rego period.