Woman unrepentant over felling of 'pest' tree

Alice Presley with the remains of the liquidambar she had cut down in Avondale. Picture / Martin Sykes

An Avondale woman has been sentenced to 180 hours' community work for chopping down a large liquidambar tree - but she is unrepentant.

Alice Presley said while Auckland City Council proposed getting rid of liquidambar trees in Queen St - a plan since put on hold - it took her to court for getting rid of a 14m-high specimen that had caused problems for 10 years.

The final straw came when the council handed her a $300 infringement notice for failing to look after the liquidambar because a contractor working on her property spread soil within its dripline.

"The council has been absolutely unfair and unreasonable about the whole thing," Ms Presley said.

The liquidambar's leaves and seeds made her driveway slippery, the tree grew into nearby powerlines and contaminated her tank water supply.

She is on tank water because she refused to pay Metrowater levies.

She had the tree trimmed in 1997 and 2000 at a cost of more than $600 after power company Vector demanded she keep it free from powerlines.

Twice she applied for Auckland City Council resource consent to remove the tree but was turned down.

"It's not a native tree, it's an exotic and a pest tree," she said. "The council wanted to chop down trees in Queen St and replace them with cabbage trees. I want to do the same thing."

Ms Presley said she already did community work and had no idea how she would complete the 180 hours handed down by Judge Fred McElrea after her lawyer, Alex Witten-Hannah, successfully argued she could not pay a fine.

Ms Presley is the mother of Auckland internet queen Annette Presley, founder of internet provider Slingshot who appeared on the 2005 NBR Rich List with an estimated worth of $70 million.

Mr Witten-Hannah described the sentence as "tough".

"Auckland City Council has been very disrespectful in their failure to recognise the problems the tree was causing," he said.

ACC spokeswoman Jackie Wilkinson said the sentence sent a strong message the council would not tolerate illegal removal of protected trees, in this case an exotic tree over 8m high.

Problems caused by leaves and seeds were not a good enough reason to destroy it and Judge McElrea had considered Ms Presley's culpability high because she was aware of the rules but felled it anyway.

Ms Presley was also ordered to replace the tree.