Workmen’s action upsets school

Press, 3 April 1980, Page 9

Workmen’s action upsets school

Heathcote County Council workmen “decimated” part of a : reserve in the grounds of Thorrington School and “wantonly topped” a 15-year-old totara tree, the council’s electricity committee has been told. The action of the workmen during the storm on January 2 had distressed members of the school committee, said the committee’s secretary (Mr A. M. Perry) in a letter to the council. Mr Perry said that the workmen ’ had not consulted the principal before freeing power lines from trees in the school grounds. He asked that the integrity of the grounds be respected in future. The chairman of the electricity committee (Cr T. P. Wills) said yesterday that when the lines were being

cleared a willow tree had fallen on the young totara. The men had been unable to notify the principal before starting work because it was in the early hours of the morning, he said. However, they could have returned later to explain their action. The council’s electrical engineer (Mr I. Densem) told the committee that the totara, which had been about 3m high, had been planted directly beneath the wires. He said that the accident had happened during a storm in which the men had worked throughout the night. The committee decided that Cr Wills and Mr Densem discuss the incident with the principal and the school committee, ‘with a view to replacing the damaged plants.