The Star: July 16, 2020

The Star Thursday July 16 2020
10
NEWS
Botanic Gardens
now home
to rare pines
A NUMBER of rare and
endangered pine trees have
been planted inside the Botanic
Gardens.
Six wollemi pines – which
have just been planted – can be
found in an avenue near the visitor
centre, said Botanic Gardens
director Wolfgang Bopp.
They join another specimen of
the tree growing near the children’s
playground, which in 2013
was the first wollemi planted in
New Zealand.
One of the world’s oldest tree
species, wollemi pines were
thought to be extinct until they
were discovered by a park ranger
in 1994 in Wollemi National
Park near Sydney.
“Fewer than 100 mature trees
are known in the wild and their
native habitat was preserved by
firefighters during last summer’s
Australian bush fires,” Mr Bopp
said.
“They are now being grown
in botanic gardens around the
world to ensure their survival
in case their native habitat is
destroyed, or pests or diseases
cause damage.
“These trees are living relics
with links to the past and they
are closely related to the New
Zealand native kauri. We have
chosen a high profile area to
give them more prominence,’’ he
said.
• By Louis Day
A CALL has been made to
axe street lighting across the
residential red zone, which is
costing the city council $140,000
a year.
There are a total of 1149 lights
within the red zone.
City councillor Aaron Keown
believed all of
these should
be removed in
order to save
money as the
council looks
to trim back
its budget in
the face of a
$99 million
revenue shortfall resulting from
the pandemic.
“We should be taking out the
whole lot. If it is no longer on a
street people are living on, we
should be taking them out,” he
said.
“Leaving street lights on where
no one lives, that just does not
make sense.”
City council manager of
transport planning and delivery
Lynette Ellis said 689 of the lights
could be removed as they are
located on roads closed to vehicle
access.
The annual cost of the 689
lights is $78,000 and the cost to
remove them is $52,000.
Cr Keown questioned whether
the removal costs would be
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Call for residential red zone blackout
Aaron Keown
so high.
Dallington Residents
Association chairwoman
Bebe Frayle did not
think it would be wise
to remove all of the
streetlights across the red
zone.
“There are probably
lights in there that
could be removed but wholesale
removal is probably not good for
public safety,” she said.
“A lot of people use the red
zone and I think if you are not a
regular user of the red zone you
Bebe Frayle
can’t really appreciate
how many people use it.”
Things are not as
simple as just switching
lights off.
Said Ms Ellis: “Lights
are connected in groups
which can cover a
number of streets, there
is not a switch available
for each individual light remotely.
While it may be possible
to completely disconnect some
groups from other groups, it
would disconnect lights that are
still required to service occupied
• HAVE YOUR
SAY: Should
the red zone
street lighting
be turned off?
Email your
views louis.day@
starmedia.kiwi
LIGHTING:
Illuminating the
residential red
zone is costing
the city council
$140,000 a year.
PHOTO: GEOFF
SLOAN
properties within the red zone or
streets adjacent to the red zone.”
The city council has not proposed
to cut the cost of any of the
street lights within the red zone
from this year’s draft Annual
Plan.
Ms Ellis said this was considered
but it was ultimately decided
to leave a decision on the future
of the lights to when the council
addresses its Long Term Plan
next year.
However, the lights could be
axed before then if councillors
agree upon their removal.
Timeless Elegance
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