Dear Sir/Madam
 
The Tree Council is very dismayed that Auckland City’s majority Citizens and Ratepayers councillors voted down a proposal last week to invite Aucklanders to put forward trees for scheduling, in response to the recently amended RMA legislation.
 
The government has stated that it wants Councils to get out in the community and use monies that otherwise would have been used to administer previously required consents for trimming large trees, on identifing many more trees for scheduling.
 
Instead, the Council is catching up with the backlog of requests from the past, and these are only there because of the Council’s persistent inaction.  An individual wanting to schedule a tree now will be forced to go through a private plan change for the cost of at least $2,000.
 
Using the forthcoming new Auckland Council as an excuse for doing little is no excuse. If the Environment Minister Nick Smith does not step in to force the Council to be proactive in scheduling trees, as he promised he would by the beginning of April, then we will really know what a foolish charade this government is playing with urban tree protection.

Yours sincerely

Sigrid Shayer, Chair, The Tree Council
PO Box 78088, Grey Lynn, Auckland
ph:  09 828 3727; www.thetreecouncil.org.nz

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