Nor'West News: June 13, 2017

NOR’WEST NEWS Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Tuesday June 13 2017 7
Your Local Views
Ode to the blue gums
Papanui-Innes
Community
Board member
John Stringer
writes about the
loss of trees in
the community
With sadness I observed the
felling of the Bishopdale blue
gums.
I regularly use both the larger
Northlands Shopping Centre
and the little Bishopdale Village
Mall.
The rank of tall australian
blue gums ringing the village
mall car park was a feature I
enjoyed.
As well as the trees, we
recently lost the Mitre 10 at the
mall, which has shifted further
down Harewood Rd.
Trees are important to a community,
which is why we have
protection orders and bylaws
governing some trees.
The Bishopdale blue gums
were on private property so,
in one sense, they can do as
they please, but as trees are an
important aesthetic to any community
is it worth extending
the reach of bylaws to cover not
just historic trees but also the
impact on a community of the
removal of large treescapes?
There is a lot of tree removal
going on in our community.
With all the change in our
city and roadworks strangling
our arterials, the continuity
of arboreal landscapes is
important for psychological
well-being.
Too much change all at once
brings a feeling of dislocation
and being wrenched from stability
and familiarity.
When I moved from a large
property in Papanui several
years ago, the owners cut down
every single tree on what was
one of the last un-subdivided
residential properties in the
area – a remnant quarter acre
section.
Down came the red peaches,
the figs, a tall native, blueberries,
pears and a huge magnolia
that was such a feature of the
local community.
FELLED: A
Treetech
arborist
removed
eight blue
gums
outside the
Bishopdale
Village
Mall.
Up went a tilt slab jammed in
behind an older house.
As the Bishopdale blue gums
toppled, I reflected on Gerard
Manly Hopkins’ famous eulogy
to Binsey Poplars.
“My aspens dear, whose
airy cages quelled, Quelled or
quenched in leaves the leaping
sun, All felled, felled, are all
felled; Of a fresh and following
folded rank . . . O if we but knew
what we do.”
RIP Bishopdale blue gums –
you will be missed.
DANGER: Red light runners at this Shirley Rd pedestrian crossing
are causing concerns for pupils safety.
PHOTO: GILBERT WEALLEANS
Pupils safety at risk
•From page 1
Community board chairwoman
Ali Jones said off the back of the
meeting, the group came away
with seven action points.
“The school is not that obvious,
it actually looks like a big office
block . . . if drivers are aware there
are children in the area they will
slow down,” Ms Jones said.
Plans likely to be implemented
include a sign
that warns of children in
the area, increased police
presence, increased city
council enforcement and
pupils carrying flags as
they cross the road.
Mrs Jamieson said they
were also looking at having
a longer waiting time between
the light changing red and the
crossing turning green.
“It will be a combined effort.
The sign, police enforcing, city
council enforcing and also
Ali Jones
someone suggested the children
holding flags as they cross
the road like they already do at
St Albans Primary,” Ms Jones
said.
A full safety audit by the city
council, of traffic from Hills Rd to
The Palms Shopping Centre has
also begun.
Although ideas such as
a flashing 40km/h signs
outside the school were
also proposed but is unlikely
to go ahead.
“They’re expensive and
we have to tick a lot of
NZTA boxes related to
getting that,” Ms Jones
said.
But due to traffic
congestion along Shirley Rd after
school, Mrs Jamieson said it
wasn’t so much an issue of speed
as red light running.
Ms Jones said changes would be
in place within four weeks.
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