Bridge Hill resident and tree campaigner Chris Winter is unhappy with how the Central Otago District Council (CODC) managed the controversial issue of pine trees at the entrance to Alexandra. 

Chris believes the council wanted the trees gone, and nothing was going to prevent that.

“They [the council] decided to remove the trees without consultation. We heard about it on the Central App that they were going to move in the machinery three days later, so we got it stopped,” he said. 

“We said you need to have some consultation with the public, and so they danced around for a while and then said ‘no, we’re gonna just go and do it’, so we got them to stop again. 

“Finally, they decided to do some community consultation. They ran a drop-in session, essentially glorified PR, to tell us what they would do once the trees were gone,” he said.  

Some of the condemned pines of Bridge Hill. PHOTO: The Central App

Following this consultation, the decision was put to Vincent Community Board (VCB) members to either vote to keep the trees as they are, remove them all at once, or remove them through a staged process.

The majority of the board members opted to have the trees removed through a staged process over time.

Attending the VCB meeting were mayor Tim Cadogan and CEO Sanchia Jacobs. They queried whether council policy allowed for a staged removal of the trees and recommended deferring the final decision to the March council meeting to allow for time to clarify the policy issue.

Read more: No staged exit for Bridge Hill pines - News - News - The Central App

While a supporter of a staged removal, VCB chair Tamah Alley said the recommendation to refer back to the full council for clarification was right. 

Vincent Community Board chair Tamah Alley

“I guess as a council when you write policy, you try and cover everything, but as you often find in democracy, things crop up that you hadn’t anticipated or thought about.

“Given how important the issue is to our communities and how many pine trees we’ve got in the wrong places in the district, the policy must be right,” she said. 

Chris Winter has a different view.

“It looked like the VCB has no power; they have no ability to do anything if the council doesn’t agree,” he said.

While Tamah was unhappy with the outcome, she said “at the end of the day, the council made a democratic decision”. 

“Now, the important thing is to ensure that the redevelopment of the reserve is done right.”

Tamah is satisfied that democracy was not circumvented when the full council superseded her board’s decision.

“I think the last 18 months have given both council and the VCB numerous learnings to take forward to future decisions.”