A pohutakawa on the corner of Bow St and Norrie Ave in Raglan was trimmed last week by Waikato District Council’s Waikato District Alliance.
In normal circumstances, any tree maintenance is carried out on the direction of Council’s Community Connections team and therefore, it was initially presumed that this work was not done by Council. Staff investigated and viewed footage which showed that the work was carried out by Council’s roading team. This sort of work is always carried out by a trained arborist.
A roading crew were given a service request on Friday afternoon after a member of the public made an urgent request to have the tree looked at after they hit their head on a low-lying branch. While staff crew were on site a decision was made to trim the branch to remove the hazard.
Council realises the tree is much-loved by the community and due process was not followed in this instance and for this, we sincerely apologise. An arborist has since visited the tree and tidied up the site. Remedial work has been completed and Council will continue to assess the tree in the coming months.
ENDS
If required, please attribute the above statement to Council’s Roading Team Leader Ross Bayer.
For more information please contact:
Teresa Hancock
Communications Advisor
Waikato District Council
027 706 5776
communications@waidc.govt.nz
