U-turn means chop for century-old tree

Murray Wallis wants to know why the tree has to be felled now. Picture / Martin Sykes

A tree believed to be 100 years old faces the chop after the Auckland City Council reversed an earlier decision to preserve it.

The 10-metre high coral tree, which borders a block of apartments in Grey Lynn and stands on a heritage building site, will be cut for access to a subdivision.

However, the decision is confusing neighbours who said the council enforced stringent measures on a property developer to protect it before giving resource consent six years ago to build the apartments they occupy.

"We see that as a big inconsistency and we asked council what has changed in the six years when these villas were developed with engineering measures put in place to protect it," said Murray Wallis.

"Now the council has turned around and accepted the application to remove the tree."

Anne Marie Weller questioned whether the council had considered all the options. Neighbours were not considered to be an affected party under the Auckland City Council's district plan and were not given the chance to share their opinions and concerns.

"I guess there's another concern that the current district plan can allow this sort of development to happen without considering neighbours or other affected parties automatically.

"It seems illogical that we are affected but are not considered an affected party and they didn't have to notify or inform us in any way that the tree was coming down," she said.

Kirsty Jones, Auckland City Council spokeswoman confirmed that under its district plan - to be reviewed in 2009 - property owners were not required to notify their neighbours of intentions to fell trees unless it was "significant".

The council "deemed it best" for the accessway to go through where the tree stands for the preservation of the villa on the site, a heritage building.

The coral tree, also known as a flame tree, was not on the council's list of scheduled trees which are afforded greater protection.

The neighbours say they will miss the tui which congregate there and the privacy, and believe the accessway could be moved to avoid the tree.