Ross St Onerahi residents, Fiona Hall, Trevor Goodhue, Giles Brown, Elaine Mackintosh, Bruce Darby, Muvin Yanko and Pamela Adkins with one of the trees they want removed. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Ross St Onerahi residents, Fiona Hall, Trevor Goodhue, Giles Brown, Elaine Mackintosh, Bruce Darby, Muvin Yanko and Pamela Adkins with one of the trees they want removed. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Another street of nuisance trees has the council facing questions about its tree planting and maintenance policies.
The residents of Ross Street have a branch to pick with the council over the sycamore and oak trees planted 30 years ago along their road berm.
Those living on the street inOnerahi, Whangārei, say they have met with council representatives over the past few years concerning the deciduous trees which are causing a "significant nuisance."
Resident Elaine Mackintosh is concerned that the trees will only grow bigger, as they can live to well over 200 years old and grow to 45m tall with a similar spread.
"Autumn is a miserable time of year for many Ross St residents as the leaf fall is immense and just swamps our front yards, driveways and spouting," Mackintosh said.
"Roof spouting needs to be cleared out often, either putting elderly residents at risk up ladders or out-of-pocket paying for someone else to do it."
One of those elderly residents is Mauvin Yanko, who finds the fallout from the trees difficult to manage at 90 years old.
Cracks and repairs to the footpaths can be seen due to damage caused by the roots, which sometimes affect residents' driveways and fences.
"Those repairs to the footpath would be useless to a person in a wheelchair," said Yanko.
Ross St tree roots breaking pavements and gutters. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Yanko also raised concerns about potential damage to the underground services from tree roots in the future.
Ross Street resident Dale Carter was bothered by the lack of foresight shown by the council by planting such large trees close to properties.
"When you first buy your home you're ecstatic, and when the trees get planted it's the council, so you go with it," said Carter.
Both women brought their properties before the trees were planted, and had no idea that in 30 years' time they'd be raking leaves every day for four months a year.
"Residents who have no other way of coping with the volume of leaves have to rake them every couple of days onto the road to be picked up by the road sweeper," Mackintosh said.
When Carter and Yanko look out the window at the large trees encroaching their homes, on the berm across the road is a much smaller, less leafy tree of envy.
It was luck of the draw whether a small or big tree was planted on the berm outside their house for Ross Street residents, who had no say in the original decision-making to plant the trees.
"We'd like to see them take out the big trees and plant smaller ones that aren't so difficult to manage," said Carter.
The council maintenance of the trees includes a road sweeper that comes two to three times a week some months, and the residents say they would rather see their rates used to chop the larger trees down altogether.
"Unfortunately many of the residents of Ross St are not in the financial position to pay for the felling of these trees, but would greatly appreciate some help from the council to help the situation," Mackintosh said.
Whangārei District Council Parks and Recreation manager Sue Hodge said they will meet with residents of Ross Street again to assess the situation.
"As a council, we have a tree policy these days requiring us to ensure we put the "right tree in the right place" when planting trees, or working with developers who will hand assets over to us.
"In the past, things were maybe not so clear, we are facing the fix-up for that now."
Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees of Ross Street by this time of year. Photo / Michael Cunningham
All trees on the council's road reserve that are 6m in height are protected under the District Plan rules, which is frustrating for the residents who say the large trees are the issue.
"Unfortunately we are having problems like this occurring in several parts of the district at the moment, and we are in a position to be able to deal with only a few a year.
"Over time the situation will improve as the wrong trees are removed where they are causing problems and are then replaced with more suitable trees. This will take a decade or so..."
The council confirmed it has wider plans to review trees in heavily urban areas, given the issues raised recently.
"We are currently putting together a schedule of trees for inclusion in a resource consent to get approval to remove and replant.
