Waimate North residents Daryl Way, left, John Beachman and Trina McManus with dead tōtara and pōhutukawa on Te Ahu Ahu Rd in November 2020. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Waimate North residents Daryl Way, left, John Beachman and Trina McManus with dead tōtara and pōhutukawa on Te Ahu Ahu Rd in November 2020. Photo / Peter de Graaf
It's taken more than a year but the Far North District Council has apologised for the spraying of pōhutukawa trees planted by volunteers as part of a project to beautify Waimate North roadsides.
A $1000 donation has also been made to the local landcare group to help fund future projects.
The death of pōhutukawa, tōtara and other natives along Te Ahu Ahu Rd and Old Bay Rd in October 2020 baffled local residents, some of whom had been involved in planting the trees 20 years earlier.
It later emerged the trees had been sprayed with herbicide by a contractor engaged in weed control work, part of a Government-funded Covid employment and economic recovery project.
The following month the council admitted the trees had been sprayed in error, but said it had not been informed of the plantings and some of the trees reduced driver visibility.
That was disputed by members of the Waimate North Landcare Trust, who pointed out multiple locations where one tree had been sprayed but the tree next to it, which was closer to the road, had not.
Council infrastructure general manager Andy Finch said staff met trust representatives on October 1, 2021, to discuss the accidental spraying of roadside pōhutukawa.
The meeting was followed by a letter to the trust on November 24 from the maintenance and operations manager of the Northland Transportation Alliance, which managed the work for the council.
The letter accepted the pōhutukawa should not have been sprayed and offered an apology. It also confirmed all contractors had been reminded of the council's spray processes.
The contractor had offered the trust a donation of $1000 to help fund future projects in the Waimate North area.
The donation was considered by the trust committee and accepted, Finch said.
Waimate North residents Trina McManus, left, John Beachman and Daryl Way with a dead pōhutukawa on Te Ahu Ahu Rd in November 2020. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Trust chairman Daryl Way said the matter was resolved at a meeting of trustees, council staff and contractors.
''They realised they weren't going to succeed in denying anything anymore. We all parted amicably,'' he said.
The trust's case was strengthened as more and more documents came to light, including some the council had previously refused to release under the Official Information Act.
Way said the trust received the apology they sought and an acceptance of responsibility by the council.
It became obvious during the meeting that some staff at the coal face were overwhelmed with the amount of work they had to do, he said.
No decision had been made as yet about how the $1000 would be spent but it was likely it would pay for plantings in and around Waimate North.
The pōhutukawa were planted in the late 1990s in a community project led by the late Bob Molloy of Kerikeri, who wanted to create a ''crimson trail'' across the Mid North.
