Demise of gum trees a sticking point

JUST GIVE IT A TRIM: Grant Road resident Barbara Barwick says the gum tree being cut down at the Grant Road Reserve serves a practical purpose and should stay. Picture by Paul Rickard

Three trees at the Grant Road Reserve met with chainsaws after complaints from residents, but another member of the public is disappointed with the process.

Barbara Barwick has lived in Grant Road, off Riverside Road, since 1968 and says one of the gum trees being cut down was helping to hold the land from falling into the river.

She says five metres of the bank has fallen away since she has lived there.

“It's so sad to see it go when it was serving a purpose,” said Mrs Barwick.

Following several complaints from residents concerned about large falling branches, three eucalyptus trees on the Gisborne District Council land were marked for removal.

The council said contractors carried out tree risk assessments on five eucalyptus trees in the area and determined that three of those trees posed a significant health and safety risk to neighbouring residents and should be removed immediately.

Remedial works will be carried out on the other two trees and contractors will continue to monitor them.

No community consultation is required for trees that are dying, diseased or present “an immediate and significant danger to people or property”.

Mrs Barwick says she is fine with the other two gum trees that were cut down but unhappy about the third tree which, she says, is fulfilling a practical purpose.

“I have difficulty in the need for the tree to be chopped down. It could have been trimmed.”

While she agrees the council may have had to act on the issue, even without consultation, she would have liked the council to have informed residents of the work.