A 30m Norfolk pine in Cherrywood has been cut down more than three years after residents first complained about the mess and damage it was causing.
Norton Rd resident Diana Maltby contacted the Bay of Plenty Times in March 2010 when Tauranga City Council refused her request to have the large tree just outside her boundary cut down.
She was filling up a large rubbish bin with tree debris each week and some of the concrete slabs on her driveway had started to lift but, at the time, council arborist Richard Conning said the tree did not fit the criteria for removal. The council agreed to clear debris from the roof of her house four times a year but Mrs Maltby, now 83, said that was not enough.
"Every day it makes a mess, depending on the wind, but we have to clean it up at least once a week," she said.
Mrs Maltby yesterday said a neighbour more directly affected by the driveway damage convinced Mr Conning to visit the property again in May and the arborist agreed the tree now needed to come down.