Queen St plan set to begin

The $30 million Queen St upgrade will have to be redesigned if some or all of the 20 condemned trees are kept, says acting Auckland City Council chief executive John Duthie.

He said saving the trees would "absolutely impact the programme and the project" but indicated work would still start next Wednesday following a dawn blessing by Ngati Whatua.

Howls of condemnation forced Mayor Dick Hubbard to do a u-turn on Thursday and consider options to save 20 of the 36 trees tagged for removal in the first stage of the project between Mayoral Drive and Wellesley St. Of the 20 trees, only a one-year-old yellow poplar will be transplanted. The other 19 will be cut down.

"Maybe we have to inspect the case on a tree-by-tree basis," Mr Hubbard said.

Only hours earlier, Mr Hubbard said it was too late to save the trees and named January 13 and January 14 as the dates for the so-called "Queen St massacre". Saving the trees would incur a "multimillion dollar mess" for ratepayers because the council had let the contract for work to start, he said.

Mr Duthie said there would definitely be implications if the contract was "voided or negated" but did not know what impact a redesign would have on the contract. The first work, involving some kerb relocations outside the Scenic Circle Airedale Hotel, was unlikely to be affected.

The implications would not be known before next Wednesday when the design experts returned to work.

The Herald has received about 200 emails on the removal of the trees, which the council wants to gradually phase out mainly for cabbage trees and nikau palms in order to create a South Pacific feel. The majority have opposed it. Among these are former Mayor Catherine Tizard, architect and member of Mr Hubbard's urban design taskforce Julie Stout, and several horticultural experts.

Children's advocate Lesley Max and veteran newspaper campaigner Pat Booth have said they would chain themselves to the trees. NewstalkZB host Leighton Smith has promised to make it his "personal responsibility" to remove Mr Hubbard from office if the trees are felled.

Arts patron James Wallace, who operates a trust and gallery in Queen St, has written to Mr Hubbard to offer support: "I am afraid you are extraordinarily ill-advised by barbaric philistines in terms of council staff and advisers. "Their ridiculous idea that we need to be politically correct by planting natives is as ill-judged as it is balmy," he said.

Art consultant Hamish Keith has also questioned the use of bluestone for Queen St, saying it is a porous unpolished stone sourced from China that holds every bit of muck and grease spilt or thrown at it.

"The problem is that this stone is as blue as asphalt on a very bad day. It has been down for almost a year in High St, where it gets filthier by the day," Mr Keith said.

The council has a $5 million, three-year contract with Designsource to provide bluestone and other stone for Queen St and the other upgrades.