Time ticking and costs mounting for Mt Albert tree removal

Time is ticking, and the bill is increasing, as protesters continue to delay the felling of 345 exotic trees on Auckland's Ōwairaka/Mt Albert.

The Tūpuna Maunga Authority - which plans to replace the exotics with native plantings - has organised an open hui at 10am today.

Protesters, who have been occupying the maunga since last Monday, are refusing to attend.

Authority chairman Paul Majurey said the work won't be done by Christmas because it's scheduled to take four weeks, but there's hope a resolution will be found today.

"It incurred additional costs, because we had people on stand-by. There are holding costs associated with that," Majurey said.

"It is rather unfortunate that we've had this delay."

Majurey said it was surprising and disappointing the protesters had chosen not to attend, but the hui will still go ahead this morning regardless.

"We think it's still worth going ahead, because we have had approaches from local residents and community groups that do want to attend."

Honour the Maunga spokeswoman Anna Radford said they felt manipulated by the authority and claimed they didn't know about the hui until reporters approached them.

Majurey said he emailed Radford directly about the hui, and sent a follow-up email on Monday.