The council will ask if the $80,000 grant can be used to buy an ultra-light fire fighting unit.

The shire's Community Recovery Committee has recommended that the money be used for the tanker as a "mobile memorial" and a petition with 688 signatures supporting the move has been received by council.

However a report to last week's council meeting said regional contacts within the authority and the Department of Planning and Community Development had advised a tanker would fall outside the guidelines.

Meanwhile, mayor Bill McClenaghan said the council would wait for further information before reconsidering the issue and petition next month.

"There is clearly very strong support in our community for a fire fighting vehicle as a mobile memorial and we want formal clarification as to why such a proposal would not qualify for the funding," he said.

"A plaque on the side of the vehicle would clearly show it was purchased as a memorial to those terrible fires in February while contributing to a greater sense of safety in the community.

"As far as I'm concerned it meets the memorial criteria.

"It would not be accessible if locked up in the fire shed but it would often be out and about amongst the community, and in that sense it is visible and accessible to the community."

Community Recovery Committee member Gerald Coffey said the ultra-light fire tanker was its number one priority for funding although the group would be discussing alternatives at a meeting on Monday.

Other possibilities included repairing fire-damaged areas such as Wombat Creek Road Bridge and the Daylesford Spa Country Railway, he said.