Editorial: Trees needed to go

Mature phoenix palms were felled outside Taradale Primary School recently. Photo Duncan Brown

Rurally in this region a single phoenix palm was a common choice for the front lawn.

I can only guess that as natives of both Greece and Turkey they were brought home by our soldiers as an exotic souvenir.

In urban Taradale the same exotics have been upsetting Church Rd natives.

Many attested Napier City Council should not have felled a stand of 78-year-old Phoenix Palms outside Taradale Primary School.

At first it seemed the residents' argument was solid - as the rationale for felling seemed to be based only on talk of rats, pigeons, guano and falling debris.

And if the specimen's a pest magnet, then the 100-odd that line residential Kennedy Rd should also be axed.

What was playing out ostensibly was the most expensive rat purge in Napier's history.

To boot, as a visiting colleague reminded me this week, the palm-amenity is part of Napier's southern-California Art Deco schtick.

While the link between palm and local provenance may be a little tenuous, it's a ruse that pays a healthy dividend for Napier. Felling too many of the iconic fronds could imperil this.

Taradale Primary principal Marty Hantz said the main concern was the blind spots created by the trees which posed a safety risk for children crossing the road.

Hard to argue with that. Safety will always trump sentimentalism - which means the right move isn't always the popular one.

But I'm glad residents threw their toys. The day Kiwis stop protesting chainsaws ripping through healthy, mature trees, will be a sad one.