Residents of Helen Street, St Albans, received a shock after waking to find a construction site at the front of their homes.
Jenny Isa said her nature strip was dug up and a portion of the footpath pulled up as part of NBN construction works.
Ms Isa said she had been given no prior notice the work was to take place.
“I don’t mind work being done – do what you have to do – but none of us were given any warning about this,” she said.
“I simply woke up and my front lawn was a construction site. The works go across four properties and there’s a fair bit of mud and mess left. They’ve ripped up the lawn and parts of the driveways because they didn’t know where the gas pipes are.” An NBN Co spokesperson said it was standard procedure for the company and its delivery partners to forewarn councils and residents about upcoming work, and both parties had been notified.
“NBN Co and its delivery partners always do their best to ensure residents and business owners are given advanced notification of planned construction in their area,” he said.
But Brimbank infrastructure and city services director Neil Whiteside said the council had no prior knowledge of the work.
“Council understands that these works are being completed by Lendlease as part of construction of the National Broadband Network (NBN),” he said.
“Council officers have since met with Lendlease representatives and a resident on site and Lendlease has advised that the nature strip and vehicle crossing will be reinstated.”
Ms Isa said that more than a week after the work started, her nature strip remained a mess.
“Nobody has come to fix this yet – it’s still a mess and there’s no communication,” she said.
“Council didn’t know the works were even going to occur and have since directed me to NBN Co, Lendlease and Telstra so it’s a bit difficult to know what’s going on or when someone is going to arrive to fix this.”
