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Auckland Council staff are currently investigating the removal of several large limbs from pohutukawa trees on council land adjacent to properties on Swann Beach Road and Ardern Avenue.
A concerned resident, Murray Bane, drew the matter to Council’s attention.
Mr Bane says he believes that that the work is being carried out by property owners who wish to improve their sea views.
The trees are protected under the Auckland District Plan and the Proposed Unitary Plan and a consent is required for any trimming or removal. Generally, infringement fines can be levied, or in severe cases prosecution could follow.
At the upper end of the scale, if convicted in the District Court, penalties of up to $300,000 can be imposed, or two years imprisonment.
Compliance resource consents acting manager, Steve Pearce, says the team are speaking to adjacent property owners to find out more information. “A decision on mitigation and enforcement will be made once our investigation is completed,” Mr Pearce says.
The owner of one of the properties, Warren Frogley, admits to poisoning and removing vegetation, and pruning some trees, but says it was not about sea views.
“I am certainly not hacking off limbs for views,” Mr Frogley says. “The pohutukawas are one reason that we bought the place and we love them.”
He says when he bought his property two years ago, weeds were rampant, with big mats of jasmine extending over a 30sqm area from his property down onto the esplanade reserve. “The jasmine was climbing into the trees and strangling everything in its path,” he says. “I spoke to Council and was told it was a low priority, so I removed it myself. It was so thick that it took three days using a gorse cutter and we had to truck it to the tip. Some branches broke as the jasmine was pulled out and I tidied those up.”
He says since then he has sprayed the area to keep the jasmine from re-growing, with Council providing chemicals.
Auckland Council’s operational management and maintenance, north, manager Julie Pickering, says parks received a complaint regarding ivy and jasmine in the reserve.
“We assist residents to help control weeds in reserves neighbouring their properties, and have provided advice about clearing the weeds and a tube of weedicide paste to put on stems of the vines once they were cut. We will also supply native plants to beautify the area once the weeds are removed,” she says.
She says this is separate from Council’s current compliance investigation regarding the pruning of pohutukawa trees.
Mr Frogley did not wish to comment when asked about limbs that have recently been removed from pohutukawas on the public reserve in front of his home other than to say: “On occasion there’s a dead limb and Council have reminded me of what should and shouldn’t be done. I don’t want to do anything wrong, just keep on top of noxious weeds.”
He says there’s no way he’d do anything to pohutukawas on the cliff edge. “No property owner in their right mind would do that. They are keeping the cliff stable.”
Mr Bane is passionate about protecting the environment and says he lives by the philosophy, “don’t ask what the environment can do for you, ask what you can do for the environment”. He says he and other concerned neighbours will be happy as long as people stop removing vegetation on public land.
“Those trees and the other native plants are a very important part of our environment and they don’t belong to people who happen to live alongside,” he says.
He says he has offered his assistance to Parks to help replant the area that has been sprayed.
