THE TREE COUNCIL - MEDIA RELEASE

11th NOVEMBER 2009
 
Auckland City Council to defer real action on new tree scheduling programme?
 
The Tree Council is urging Auckland City Council to actively encourage people of Auckland to put forward trees for scheduling.  The Tree Council is concerned that councillors at this Thursday’s Community Development Committee will choose to do the minimum in response to the government’s recent change in urban tree protection legislation.
 
The government has stated that it wants to see Councils get out in the community and use monies on scheduling trees which otherwise would have been used to administer consents for trimming trees, which they are no longer required to do.
 
The Council has been given 5 different options by staff but only one matches what the government has stated it wants to see. Other options include those of merely dealing with requests for scheduling particular trees that have been sent in, but not acted on, over the past 10 years.
 
Sigrid Shayer, Chair, The Tree Council, says, “Using the forthcoming new Auckland Council as an excuse for doing little is no excuse.  If Auckland City does not agree to Option 3b in the officer report it leaves itself open to being reprimanded by Environment Minister, Nick Smith, who has promised to use his powers under the RMA to ensure that Councils do in fact carry out this work.”
 
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