Catherine Stewart Tauranga City Councillor

Elected members had a workshop recently on protected trees. Some elected members have received phone calls from ratepayers regarding issues over protected trees on their properties.

The City Plan Review resulted in some 339 individual protected trees and 10 groups of protected trees on private property.

There are about 8000 trees in reserves and 21,000 street trees. Most of the mature council trees are not on the protected tree list.

Do you have a protected tree that is causing a problem? I have seen some examples where protected trees are interfering with infrastructure. Health concerns have also been raised by many residents. Elected members will be discussing this matter further.

In the meantime, if you have an issue with a protected tree, please email me details with photographs to: [email protected]

I can then pass on your informal feedback to elected members when we have our next workshop on this topic.