Norfolk pines turned down

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Cafe owners' call to prune
Trees notched up a rare victory against people when the city council ruled against a request from Mount Maunganui cafe owners to prune two Marine Parade Norfolk pines.
The owners of four cafes under the Twin Towers complained that the sun was behind the trees from 7am to midday during winter, making it "quite hard" for customers to enjoy their coffees.
Their petition asked that council prune the trees to allow more sunlight through to patrons sitting outside, many of whom found it "very cold and breezy".
"We would like our clients to visit us more and know that they are comfortable dining outside the cafes."
The suggestion to prune the upper branches was resisted by arborist Steve Webb who said it would not provide much more light. He warned that removing some branches would lead to the collapse of remaining branches.
Mr Webb guessed the pines were 50 or 60 years old and were expected to live another 60 years.
"There are not a lot of shade trees around that part of town."
Cr Catherine Stewart led the move to decline the request, saying the trees provided shade in summer, offered great amenity value and were a landmark.
 Three melia trees in a Papamoa cul-de-sac were less lucky, despite council arborist Richard Connings arguing they were in good health, were well sited in larger berms and did not fit the criteria for removal.
The mainly elderly residents of Florida Key in Royal Palm Beach Estate complained that during the six weeks of leaf fall, their footpaths became very slippery when wet.
The other problem was when the trees shed small hard berries that turned the footpath into a "carpet of ball bearings".
Staff had already agreed to remove the street's two other melia trees because they were showing signs of damaging driveways and were too big for the berm.
Mr Webb agreed that people could slip on the wet leaves but said all trees had some problems.
"It is part of having street trees - you will get these issues."
Cr Wayne Moultrie wanted to restrict the felling to the melia which obscured views when a householder was  reversing his car. The wind and rustle when the tree was in leaf also created problems for the garage door's automatic sensor.
Cr David Stewart said council was falling over itself to cut down trees as soon as it could and without a budget.
He said they were getting more and more petitions to remove street trees and he was concerned about what all these "off-the-cuff" decisions would mean to the city.
"There must be a better way to deal with all of these."
The $1035  to remove the three trees and replace them with  little gem magnolias totalled one-tenth of this year's council's budget for this type of work.
Cr Murray Guy said he appreciated the position of staff, but the best person to assess the danger was surely the residents and not "some young buck" - an apparent reference to the arborist.
He said council had a duty of care and they were not running around in a mad massacre cutting down trees.
Cr Stewart responded: "Yes we are."
When it looked like the motion to fell the trees might be lost on the issue of council meeting the whole cost, Cr Greg Brownless moved an amendment that committed the residents to paying half.
This was won, meaning the decision to fell the trees was passed by a big majority, with only two opposing.