Barker Rd, Napier's beautiful nuisance trees had to go

Taking the bark out of Barker Rd - the Marewa street after removal of 27 trees past their better days. New planting is planned for next winter. Photo / Paul Taylor

The removal of more than 20 trees from a suburban Napier street is part of an ongoing programme of aged-tree replacement across the city.

The latest stage has focused on Barker Rd, Marewa, where examination of 27 melia trees found only three were "sound".

Most had lost significant limbs in the past because of decay, and were at risk of losing more.

All 27 have been removed, but the city council was planning to replant the street with a smaller and more suitable growing species next winter, council staff said.

Otherwise known as Indian Bead, the trees are regarded as beautiful but a nuisance, becoming top-heavy when fully beaded and have been a focus of tree replacement projects throughout Napier and Hastings.

The aftermath of an April 2017 storm in McDonald St, Marewa. Contractors have now removed 27 similar trees from another Marewa street as dangerously-aged trees are replaced across Napier. Photo / File

In one incident highlighting the problems, more than 10 were felled or significantly damaged in McDonald St, also in Marewa, in a storm on the night of April 15, 2017.

Trees and limbs fell on at least two cars parked at the roadside and root structures ripped up pavement in several places as the trees toppled in the later-evening winds on the night before Good Friday.

Council staff said there was no truth to claims by one resident that the tree-removal was being blamed on a need to improve cellphone reception in the area.