Owner forced to rip out $800 lawn by council

An Australian homeowner who spent money and effort to landscape the boring grass nature strip outside their home has been ordered by their local council to rip it up. The Western Australia resident said they spent $800 to transform the grass strip into something more appealing and environmentally friendly. But the local council reacted quickly to the change, ordering the resident to return the nature strip to its previous state. The resident said they wanted to save the new garden but the whole issue had left them questioning whether they even had a right to. Debate has erupted around whether it is ok to beautify your nature strip. Picture: Supplied “I spent about $800 turning the ugly grass verge outside my house into a native garden because it looked much nicer and needed less water,” they told Yahoo News. “A few months later, my local council sent me a letter telling me I have to remove it because I didn’t get approval first. “I mow it and maintain it, so I thought I was allowed to landscape it. Can the council really make me rip it all out?” Maurice Blackburn legal expert Jillian Barrett said rules around nature strips vary from state to state and council to council but one thi...