Just three Queen St trees saved

The liquidambar tree outside the Methodist Mission Church is one of three that will not be axed. Picture / Dean Purcell

Only three of Upper Queens St's trees have been saved from the axe after the Auckland City Council last night accepted a revised draft of recommendations for the $30 million upgrade.

The decision will mean the removal of 17 exotic trees - down from 20 - but they will be replaced by as many better-quality exotics.

Native trees will still be planted further down Queen St, but cabbage trees are off the list for other species such as pohutukawa and rata.

A crowd of about 40 was present at the 3 1/2-hour extraordinary meeting, called after a public outcry over the threatened removal of trees. While all councillors supported the review recommendations, many spoke of a general need for more public consultation by the council.

Councillor Graeme Mulholland warned that the public were beginning to think one set of rules existed for them, and another for the council.

He cited instances, from round the city, where the council had seemed to be removing trees at will, while the public had to get consents to remove trees on their properties.

"I don't agree with that, but it's the public perception that's out there.

"I don't think we have done things very well ... we didn't judge the public very well."

Councillor Vern Walsh, in submissions to the meeting, said that although some "emotive and unnecessary" comments had found their way into the media, the council had to find "new ways of engaging the public more".

Most of the public at the meeting appeared to be supporters of the Save Auckland Trees group, which was instrumental in forcing a council rethink of its tree policy.

Group leader Lesley Max addressed the meeting at length. She accused the council of "brazen civic hypocrisy"in its granting of consents to remove the trees.

An associate, Dianne Howarth, said the consultation process had been treated with "cavalier disregard" by council staff.

Mrs Max said Save Auckland Trees would support the recommendation that exotic trees that have to be replaced will be, "as long as they are mature exotics".

After the meeting, she said she was pleased with the acceptance of the recommendations, "and the recognition [by the council] that it is not an 'either or' [choice of trees], but that there's a place for both".

But she was not happy with the time the council had taken to react to the public uproar.

The recommendations adopted last night were based on a report by an independent panel of arborists which largely agreed with the original tree assessment for the stage one upgrade.

In a prepared statement released after the meeting, Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard said he was delighted that a satisfactory resolution to concerns had hopefully been found.

"We thought we had addressed all the major concerns raised through the long consultation over the Queen St upgrade but we obviously overlooked the level of interest in trees," he said.

"These learnings and the review process we've undertaken will be applied to our proposals for the three other stages of the upgrade. One thing's for sure - we'll keep Queen St green."