Two of Napier’s iconic Norfolk pines on Marine Parade cut down

Two of the iconic Norfolk pines which have lined Napier’s Marine Parade for 140 years have been cut down.

Crews from Clive firm Superior Exterior Treecare, assisted by a crane, started lopping the trees about 8am on Thursday, with the Napier City Council saying they’d been assessed as unsafe after being damaged by the extremes of a fire at the vacated Kiwi Keith’s backpackers’ lodge, which burned down in August last year.

Protected under the District Plan, the trees have undergone a condition assessment that concluded they could not be saved. There are no plans to remove any of the other Marine Parade Norfolks, and staff say the time that elapsed between the fire and the removal reflects the council’s determination to keep the trees.

“There was the risk of branches or the trees falling on vehicles or people during weather events or high winds,” staff said. “Removing the trees is the safest option given these risks.”

The council said the trees had been monitored by an arboriculture consultant. “Since the fire, it became clear that they weren’t going to recover and were programmed for removal.”

It said saving the trees was the council’s “preference and priority” and “they have been removed because a condition assessment concluded they could not be saved.”

The trees were planted well over 100 years ago, and could have lived for a further 100 had they not been damaged.

About 20 metres apart on the Marine Parade media strip on a section between Albion and Vautier Sts, which also includes the famed Six Sisters villas, the Norfolks will be replaced by the planting of a single specimen of the same species.

Workers bring down one of the trees with the help of a crane. Photo / Doug Laing

The parking precinct on the western side of the parade was closed throughout the major work and the northbound lane of the through-road on the seaward side was also out of action during the works.

The council says letters were sent to residents and businesses nearby advising that the work was taking place, it was in the council’s regular road closure column, the Neighbourhood council newsletter delivered and emailed across Napier, and a digital road sign erected at the Masonic end of Marine Parade had displayed some details.

On Thursday, fencing across the front of the fire scene, where a damaged two-storey building remains, was secured as an extra safety precaution. Squatters still sometimes inhabit the site, alongside the partly cleared portion where the early-morning fire razed the main lodge building 11 months ago.