20 Trees Live to See Another Day After Positive Community Meeting

Work to remove 20 large trees in two Mairehau streets has been postponed after community and elected member feedback.

Emmett and Riselaw Streets were to have the trees removed (14 in Emmett and 3 in Riselaw to “protect supply of electricity and the safety of the public”, with work starting on Monday. Three additional trees in Emmett Street that are in poor condition/hazardous have also been earmarked for removal.

However, at a community meeting on Friday afternoon, the removals have been paused.

Innes ward community member, Ali Jones, says this is the outcome she and others were hoping for, so that meaningful engagement with the community can occur.

“I understand that the Council and Orion (electricity lines) have been working together for several months to look at whether there were alternatives to removing the trees while still complying with regulations. They say there weren’t any. What CCC must do is ensure that they are communicating with the community and those representing the community (the community board), and take everyone with them rather than what has happened here,” she says.

The first elected members knew of these trees being removed was on January 9th when a Start Work Notice (SWN) was sent to the community board telling us the work would start on January 20th. When Jones requested more information, the board members were sent a CCC memo dated November 11, 2024 outlining the works with much more detail.

“We never received the November 11 memo,” says Jones. “I understand that it was not signed off and so not distributed. Of course we need to understand why this happened but more importantly we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Even more importantly, the community has to be involved – engaged with which I believe has not happened. In fact I am told that some people in these streets have still not received the council SWN and some have received a flyer from Orion about power being turned off for the works. It’s a bit of a cluster really,” she says.

Jones was unable to attend the community meeting as she is still on leave, and a number of residents were also unable to attend because of the holiday period.

“I am sure the Community Board chair will ensure this issue is top of our agenda in the new year, and I look forward to discussing this and the wider matter of protecting our trees at a time when increasing our tree canopy in the city is a priority,” she says.