Polly's good deeds pruned

North Shore City Council has ordered Polly Pollock to stop pruning pohutukawa. Photo / Doug Sherring

A great-grandmother is facing possible legal action over illegally pruning 200 pohutukawa.

Polly Pollock is opposed to the crimson-flowered native being planted in urban areas and has been lopping off the lower branches of newly planted specimens on Auckland's North Shore.

On February 4, North Shore City Council issued an abatement notice ordering the 82-year-old to cease pruning the protected trees.

If found to have committed an offence under the Resource Management Act, she could face a fine of up to $200,000 or two years in jail.

The notice was the latest development in a battle lasting years. But what may seem like a case of the Granny Grinch who stole - or pruned - the Kiwi Christmas tree is more complex.

Polly, whose real name is Mabel, has been an ardent supporter of native trees for decades and even has her own park in her home suburb, Devonport.

Mary Barrett Glade, named after her daughter, who died of cancer in 1979, was a rubbish dump when Polly took charge in 1993.

She transformed it into a mini native forest, including plenty of pohutukawa.

At the time, she was inspired by the newly formed Project Crimson, a charitable trust promoting protection of the much-loved species. "I was as carried away as anybody else," she says. "But I've grown older and I've grown more sense and now I know there are big problems with them."

In their natural state, pohutukawa are coastal trees, says Polly. They belong on cliffsides where they can be buffeted by storms, not on the sides of footpaths and main roads, where spreading branches and roots can cause major damage.

For years Polly has taken it on herself to prune the trees around the streets of Devonport to restrict their growth.

But the council says only its employees can prune street trees. Last year Polly offered her services as an employee - paid or voluntary - but was turned down.

In 2005, authorities announced pohutukawa would be planted on Esmonde Rd. Polly tried to express her disapproval but to no avail.

So when more than 200 trees were put in at the end of last year, she pruned the lot in four stints.

After receiving a complaint from the parks department, David Frith, of the council's compliance and monitoring department, issued Polly with the abatement notice. "It was a way of putting the brakes on her. Polly's done a heck of a lot of good and I told her not to undo all the good things she's done."

Frith admits he was "seriously impressed with her abilities", but the complaint has to be taken seriously.

"On the face of it it's a case of serial tree pruning. The parks department says it's not how they intended to prune them and it's likely to have put stress on the trees."

A report on the extent of the damage should be completed in the next week and the council will then decide on further action.

Polly saysshe will obey the abatement notice but the council is unlikely to have heard the last of Devonport's serial pruner. "I care about the place - that's why I do it."