Out on a limb

Out on a limb

Elizabeth Street resident David J Lee describes his frustration over the bad planting choices made for the area as part of the Wellington City Council’s recent renewal project. 

The Local recently covered some of the problems our street experienced as a result of the council’s project to replace the trees. 

Unfortunately there were more egregious issues with this drawn-out project. In 2023 I emailed the Project Manager, suggesting some suitable species and to point out the wet ground conditions (which was why the Council replaced camellias with alders years ago). Fulton Hogan obviously weren’t informed because its Update to Residents in April 2024 referred to ‘unforeseen ground conditions and ground water...’

This ended up adding more than $20k to the cost and extending the disruption to residents.

The project manager promised me, in emails and at a public meeting, that the sole kowhai in the street would be left there.

Despite this it was dug-up and disposed of with the excuse that it was ‘under a wire’. Later, right next to where the kowhai had been, an ash (a much taller tree) was planted under several wires. Leaving the kowhai in situ would have saved ratepayers thousands.

We were told olives were the ‘consensus’ choice of the community. But there was no consensus at the public meeting. It was another official who wanted them to preserve what he called ‘the Mediterranean heritage of Mt Victoria’.

To cope with having dry-land species in such wet ground, a deep trench was excavated one length of the street and filled with gravel. Because of Christmas holidays, the trench was sealed with asphalt. It was then dug up in the New Year to lay drainage pipes. The digging out of tree pits were delayed because the sides were collapsing, requiring backfilling and the constant operation of ‘hydro excavation’ trucks to remove silt. Its maddening surging, sucking noise could heard inside residences most days for weeks. After all this, what ended up being planted in this trench? Not olives, but tītoki, the natural habitat of which is river flats!

Meanwhile some other official had given permission for two properties to have drive-on access, so the newly laid channel and kerbing were removed to allow this. No sooner had this happened, there was a change of mind: the brand new drive-on kerb was removed and the previous channel and curbing re-laid.

This was supposed to be the Council’s ‘model’ for street planting. I hope for the sake of long-suffering Wellington ratepayers, that such an exorbitant, disruptive project, so lacking in co-ordination, will not be inflicted on other hapless residents.