Gum tree fate set to be resolved | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

MASTERTON district councillors will be getting out among the gum trees within the next few days to try and resolve a dispute on whether the trees should be felled.

The gums are on a council reserve on State Highway 2 between Hansells Ltd and Titoki Street and, according to the council's chief executive Wes ten Hove, are at the heart of a conflict among people who live in the street.

Some want to trees felled so they can "preserve their views to the west" whereas others want the trees to stay, or have no opinion on the matter.

The issue has dragged on for years and, by way of a compromise, the council which has no legal obligation to prune or fell the trees, took out some of the gums that had been previously pruned.

This year some of the larger gums were felled, costing the council $5480 but Mr ten Hove said immediate neighbours thought that progressive clearing of the trees was not moving fast enough.

He said the long-term potential for the land was for a walkway to be built from the Ritimona Reserve in Fourth Street through the land and around the northern boundary of the urban area.

The previously pruned gums had "little or no aesthetic value" compared with the larger gums.

The site visit by councillors would try to determine which of several options could be decided on to resolve the impasse.

One option is to clear fell the area and replace the fallen trees with other more appropriate species.

Another is to continue to fell only the previously pruned trees, leaving the unpruned gums intact.

A letter from Titoki Street resident Tony Lawrence was tabled at a meeting of the council's policy and finance committee this week.

Mr Lawrence said the blocking of views from Titoki Street homes affected both the quality of life and the value of properties.

He said residents had been waiting for almost three years for the problem to be tackled and residents who favoured felling the gums felt their concerns were being trivialised and that they were being treated unfairly.

He said there were serious shortcomings on a progressive felling approach.

In part progressive felling would only delay the planting of replacement native trees and would inevitably damage young trees already planted.

It would also open up the plantation to wind gusts by the removal of some of the trees thereby destabilising those that remained.

Councillor Judith Callaghan said trees took a long time to grow to maturity and that she doesn't like to see them felled indiscriminately.

She said many of the remaining trees were not the "ugly ones" that had previously been pruned.

Where they might be blocking some people's view she said the trees had been there a long time and some of the residents may well have made the decision to build there, knowing full well the trees were there.

The councillors decided that an on-site visit was necessary before any further decisions could be made on what should happen to the gums.