Now it's Vulcan Lane trees for chop

Andrew Bishop says the trees near his business are being felled because the council and developer "are too lazy and too cheap". Picture / Brett Phibbs

Fresh tree controversy has erupted in central Auckland with plans to axe two box elders at the top of Vulcan Lane for a temporary construction and loading zone outside a building site.

The Auckland City Council has granted resource consent to a developer, Vulcan Apartments, to chop down the trees and replace them with similar trees once work has finished extending Commercial Union House with six storeys of apartments.

The public were given no say about the trees' removal in O'Connell St at the top of Vulcan Lane.

The trees, which are 12 years old and about 10m tall, are due to be felled this month by council staff, who will plant the replacement trees. Vulcan Apartments, owned by developer Paul Doole, must pay the council $6750 before the trees are removed.

The removal has angered business people in Commercial Union House and Save Auckland Trees, the group spearheading the fight to save the threatened trees in Queen St.

Linda Chalmers, who has operated the Lane Gallery from the building for 15 years, said she had nurtured the trees since they were planted, watering them when they were young, preventing trucks running into them and stopping people swinging from them.

"They have grown to be a really wonderful part of Vulcan Lane and it is certainly going to be sad to see them cut down," she said.

Feline fashion store owner Andrew Bishop, who spent months battling council officers to save the red pebble pavers in Vulcan Lane, said no one from Vulcan Apartments or the council had consulted business owners about cutting down the trees or removing some of the red pebble pavers outside Commercial Union House.

"They could do this without removing the trees quite happily. It is just because they are too lazy and too cheap to save them," he said.

The business owners only learned yesterday about the trees' removal from the building contractors, Macrennie Construction. Project manager Bryce Caldwell told the Herald the trees would be chopped down at the start of the project this month.

Save Auckland Trees spokeswoman Lesley Max said the destruction of trees for nothing more than a temporary loading bay was extraordinary. She said Aucklanders needed to pay closer attention to the work of council arborists and their role in protecting city trees.

A resource consent application by Vulcan Apartments in July showed that council arborist Simon Cook reviewed the proposal and had no objection to removing the trees so long as replacements were put in by the council at Mr Doole's expense.

Senior planner Karen Long agreed with Mr Cook, "Given the need to accommodate construction traffic during development of the site".

"Overall, any adverse effects in respect of trees and on the streetscape will be minor as they can be mitigated by replacement planting," she said.

The council's planning fixtures committee granted resource consent to remove the trees on August 2. The committee was chaired by councillor Faye Storer and included councillors Christine Caughey, Bill Christian, Glenda Fryer and Graeme Mulholland.