No compromise on tree issue, says PM

The Government will not compromise on plans to scrap general protection for large trees in Auckland, Prime Minister John Key said yesterday.

Under changes to the Resource Management Act, councils will be barred from having generic rules requiring a permit to chop trees of a certain height or size.

Auckland councils use the rules so that they do not need to individually list every tree they consider tall or important enough to protect.

Mr Key said there was no evidence that cities such as Christchurch and Wellington, which do not have general protection rules, had any fewer trees than Auckland.

"You're not going to see some sort of chainsaw massacre [if the rules are scrapped]. Councils can protect trees through their individual notifications.

"The chopping down of trees won't begin until 2012, so councils will have plenty of time to specify trees that have to be subject to an RMA assessment."

Labour's Auckland issues spokesman, Phil Twyford, said the Government was determined to get rid of tree rules "as some kind of trophy in their war against red tape".

"Development pressures in Auckland are so intense that our urban, and particularly the coastal, forests will be at risk if the Government rams this through."

He said 78 per cent of submissions to the select committee on the issue opposed the change.