Pardon granted to some Queen St exotics

Auckland City Council advisers will today recommend removing 17 trees as part of the Queen St upgrade, a three-tree concession to a public outcry.

The council had intended removing 20 exotic trees during stage one of the Queen St revamp between Wellesley St and Mayoral Drive.

But a specially ordered tree plan review, authored by upgrade co-ordinator Karen Eisenhut, recommends there be no fewer exotics "than currently in this area".

An earlier report suggested the immediate removal of 20 exotics, to be replaced with native cabbage trees.

But the tree-plan review recommends cabbage trees be abandoned in favour of other natives such as pohutakawa, rata, taraira and nikau palms.

The report, to be tabled at an extraordinary meeting of council set for 4.30pm today, also suggests reviews be carried out of upgrade stages two and three (covering Queen St from Customs to Wellesley streets) and advocates retaining and increasing the number of liquidambar trees in stage four of the upgrade (from Mayoral Drive to Karangahape Rd).

Other recommendations in the report, including that no trees be kept on a short-term-only basis, trees be removed only if in poor to average condition, and exotic tree numbers stay at least at current levels and include liridendon, alder, tilias and pin oaks.

The report also suggested the council heed "public and stakeholder consultation" in developing Queen St.