Council was concerned the aging trees might hinder motorists and pedestrians. Photo / Greg Bowker
More Queen St trees have been removed, as the Auckland City Council replaces another 70 to make way for an avenue of liquidambars and natives.
The central city block north of Victoria St was reverberating yesterday and today, as chainsaws and shredding machines felled 11 plane trees.
As
one Farmers shop assistant put it to a customer caught in the din: "That will be $13 and a lot of noise."
Across the road another shop assistant was celebrating the removal of trees which had been a nuisance.
Kelly Clark said leaves would blow straight into the jewellery shop and at least once a customer had slipped on wet leaves.
Ms Clark said when it was windy leaves had blown about 30m into an adjacent mall. "We have to clean them out of our shop."
Russell Mason, from the North Shore, said he had no problem with the trees being removed as long as they were replaced.
The city council will start replanting in the next four to five weeks, digging deep tree-pits for replacements.
The rest of Queen St should be completed by 2008 with the planting of 111 new specimens.
A year ago the public protested against the plan for large-scale tree-felling, and it was dubbed the "Queen St massacre".
The council had claimed the exotic trees needed replacing because they were unhealthy, despite expert opinion that not all were. Eventually it agreed the new-look Queen St could still include exotics, despite its original preference for natives only.
The current round of cullings also caused controversy because there was no prior public consultation.
