Raw deal for plane tree lobby

Anna Wallis PHOTO/FILE

Those that want to keep the Taupo Quay plane trees are understandably upset they have lost the argument.

But they are also pissed off at council for not letting them have their say at a meeting on Monday when the future of the trees was decided.

There is a process if you want to be heard at a council meeting and the group didn't follow it. But perhaps on this occasion it should have been put aside and the pro Taupo Quay trees people allowed to have a say anyway.

Saving trees is an emotional subject and it's understandable they missed out on going through all the right channels.

Those that want the trees to stay were present at the same meeting as the Montgomery Reserve protectors who did stick to the rules and coincidentally came out with a win.

Giving the plane tree supporters time at the meeting may have set a precedent but does this sort of quandary happen that frequently that it matters?

What does matter that people feel they have been listened to and taken seriously.

There was a barbed remark from Marie McKay about councillors and council officers living in nice tree-ringed homes elsewhere. There are few trees in the CBD and it is one of the areas of Wanganui that is promoted for its heritage and aesthetic qualities.

Plane trees have been the subject of dissent before and in Palmerston North in 1997 more than 1500 people protested when those lining Fitzherbert Ave were chopped down. A future mayor was among them. They just wanted to widen the street there but council here seems to have more valid reasons for removing the trees.

However I am sitting on the fence on this one.

The trees are beautiful and they add immeasurably to the city. But historically we have often planted the wrong kind of tree to live alongside - or over - urban infrastructure.

I don't know what is right. But I do think after the campaign by the plane tree supporters, they have the right to be upset. They were under the misapprehension that a compromise had been worked out. And the decision by the council to go ahead was hardly unanimous.