Wylie Street Trees
Response
Sent: Tuesday, 4 November 2025 5:16 pm
Subject: REQ25-3065930 - LGOIMA Question: Wylie Street trees
I refer to your Official Information request of 2 September 2025 for information regarding the elected members payments.
Question:
For what reason were these trees hacked down to their present state?
Answer:
RLC are required to inspect and manage the health of trees and manage any associated safety risks within their road reserves. As part of this inspection, the height, form and health of the trees of Wylie Street posed a safety risk. The large, high limbs with lots of internal decay are prone to failure in storm events. With increasing numbers of storms, their severity, and safety concerns, a large reduction in tree volume was deemed necessary by Council’s arborist to ensure the trees were safe and healthy for years to come. The substantial pruning operation carried out is known as “pollarding” and seeks to alter the maintenance regime to pollards whereby annual regrowth will provide a much smaller, modified canopy which can be removed each winter as per the London Plane pollards in Government Gardens. This should greatly reduce residents’ fears of limb failure, excessive leaf-fall issues and will also reduce ongoing maintenance costs, particularly for traffic management required for larger work.
Question:
Are the trees considered to be survivable in their current state, and if any regrowth does occur what is it expected to look like?
Answer:
Most of the trees are expected to survive and resprout. Initial regrowth will likely be sparse, eventually forming a bushier, low canopy. Some regrowth might happen this summer but most is expected from the spring of 2026. The former “high tunnel” effect of the entire street canopy will not return. A thorough reinspection will be carried out in two years and any trees that fail to recover will likely be removed at that time.
Question:
Were residents of Wylie Street consulted about this happening prior, or were they merely informed? If they were consulted, what portion of them agreed to this course of action.
Answer:
Residents were informed of the intentions to reduce the trees in May 2025. Both positive and negative feedback on the intentions were received. Residents were then notified again in July just before the work was carried out.
Question:
What contractor was used and where are they based?
Answer:
The contractor engaged for this work was Tree Control Ltd, based in Tauranga.
