Mount residents fail to stop tree planting

Mount Maunganui neighbourhood has lost its battle to keep pohutukawa trees from being planted outside their homes.
The city council is pressing ahead with planting 90 pohutukawa in Valley Rd, Ranch Rd and Bain St. The trees were donated by Tauranga dermatologist Paul Salmon as part of Project Umbrella to help prevent skin cancer.
Valley Rd resident Loretta Brambley, who gathered signatures from 14 other nearby householders opposing the trees, told the Bay of Plenty Times afterwards that the decision was no surprise.
"The council will end up doing whatever the council wants to do - it does not matter what the little man wants."
She argued that parking was at a premium on the heavily subdivided properties of Valley Rd and the trees would force people into the unsafe situation of parking on the roadway.
Mrs Brambley said a lot of people did not sign the petition because they said the trees meant neighbours would not be able to park in front of their homes.
People also told her that if a tree went in, it would be damaged. Visitors used to parking on the verge might not see the trees in the dark.
Cr Rick Curach tried to put a resolution to this week's meeting that tree planting in Valley Rd and Ranch Rd be subject to the support of directly affected residents. "I don't want to plant the trees if they are going to be ripped out by residents."
He said the response to the council's letter would have been completely different if residents had been asked to ring the council if they had an objection - instead of being asked to contact council arborist Richard Conning if they had any queries.
Mr Conning said experience had shown a uniformly poor response when directly affected residents were asked about whether they wanted a tree planted in front of their homes. Planting trees on street verges was a balance between a policy that had received widespread community support and the typical response of "not outside our property".
Cr Baldock said this revealed the inadequacy of council consultation. People said they wanted trees but not outside their place.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said 15 households saying they preferred not to have the trees outside their homes did not constitute a reason to throw out the policy. "We need to put this into context. I do not think the policy is that broken."
Cr David Stewart said the petition was about residents being unable to park on the verge. There would still be room for a car once the pohutukawa had become established.
Cr Bill Grainger said if people did not want trees outside their home, then the council should not force them.
Mr Conning said 300 potential planting sites were assessed in arriving at the 90 locations. All possible negative impacts were taken into consideration and a single stemmed pohutukawa species was chosen.
The move to make the planting conditional on the support of directly affected residents was lost 7-4, with Larry Baldock, Rick Curach, Bill Grainger and Murray Guy supporting.