Controversial trees ‘cause havoc’

Press, 9 December 1981, Page 6

Controversial trees ‘cause havoc’

The organiser of a petition which seeks to have large plane trees in Roker Street, Spreydon, felled, said yesterday that residents of the street who wanted , the trees to stay did not realise what havoc the trees caused. The organiser, Mrs Betty Bailey, said that the trees’ roots cracked the pavement and driveways and broke water and sewer pipes. Other residents had complained of. the trees shading their properties, obscuring street lights, interfering with power lines, and lettering the street with leaves. Mrs Bailey said, “They (leaves) block the guttering and we get a lot of flooding. I have been here for 16 years and never knew flooding such as we had in the last five or six years.” Mrs Bailey said that flood water had once lapped the front steps of her home and

that on another occasion she and her daughter had to bail out Water and sewage by hand when thick roots -had cracked a drain. “If the -Murphys (the organisers of a counter-peti-tion) had had what had happened to me they would be very willing to get the trees out,” she said. The initial petition, to the Christchurch City Council, was signed by residents of 38 properties in Roker Street and resulted in a questionaire’s being sent to all residents in the street from the council’s Director of Parks and Recreation, Mr N. W. Drain. The council selected 38 trees which posed the greatest hazard and left 36 trees. The residents were also offered ' the choice of more suitable trees for replanting if the plane trees were felled. Mrs Bailey said that most

of the supporters of her petition wanted the trees felled and no more to be planted. The counter-petition, which was started by five Murphy sisters who live in the street with their parents, seeks to have all the trees saved. Mr Drain said yesterday that his department was never anxious to chop down any trees and that the council had a specific policy of tree planting and street beautification. But many of the trees planted in streets more than 40 years ago were large and were more suitable for parks. They disrupted underground services and power lines. The two petitions and accompanying research would go before the council’s parks and reserves committee for a decision.