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The owner of a Port Melbourne house has defied Port Phillip Council to bring his colourful front fence back to life – and this time he had some help.
Alex Skopellos was fined more than $3500 despite repainting his rainbow-coloured fence in line with heritage guidelines.
The council received only one complaint about the fence.
Mr Skopellos said he was shown 20 colour options – from which he was to choose one – at a meeting with council officers at St Kilda Town Hall. He painted the fence grey within a day of a 21-day Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal enforcement order expiring.
However, he was sent another letter fining him $3651 saying he should have painted it cream, as was stipulated in the original enforcement order.
“We tried to conform to what they wanted,” Mr Skopellos said. “We tried to do it in a peaceful manner but they spat in our faces pretty much.”
Mr Skopellos recently painted the fence cream as directed. A council officer visited last Wednesday morning to check it was up to scratch.
Later that day, Mr Skopellos’ friends, neighbours and passersby were on site to give the fence a colourful revamp, making it “bigger and better than ever”. Passersby gave their support, with some stopping to help paint.
Mr Skopellos and housemate Aiden Desouza have been inundated with support in the past month, including letters from NSW and Queensland containing money to put towards fines.
After the fence was painted grey, the housemates hung a sign saying: “The fence will return! Blame the council”.
Within days it was covered with children’s drawings and notes of support, such as “Love your fence” and “Fight the power”.
A second sign attracted even more messages, including: “Thanks for brightening up our lives.”
The council also wants a multi-coloured wall in the house’s front garden to be painted cream.
Street artist Lachlan Bell, who first painted the fence, returned to help design a diamond-shape pattern for the latest paint job. “I feel empowered to challenge this stuff,” Mr Bell said. “The council are bullies.”
