Plea to stop the chop in Glen Eira
4 Oct 11 @ 07:00am by Jenny Ling
Sheila Nash. Picture: Jason Sammon
RESIDENTS are calling for urgent and decisive action to stop significant trees being chopped down in Glen Eira. Elsternwick resident Sheila Nash said a century-old peppercorn tree near her house was cut down this month.
She said Glen Eira needed a policy, similar to those of the neighbouring Bayside and Port Phillip councils, which had by-laws controlling the removal of major trees on residential land.
“Everyone in the community benefits from a greener landscape. And although we all have certain private rights, isn’t that why we have planning laws?” Mrs Nash said.
Now most residents can remove trees from their properties without the council’s permission. Councillors voted to establish a classified tree register in April, but in June they voted to allow two mature trees in Carnegie to be felled, against advice from council officers.
Arborists would search for and identify trees that met criteria based on horticultural and aesthetic value, size, age and location. Council spokesman Paul Burke said controls would cover “the best of the best trees in Glen Eira, not a blanket control”. “It will take some time to carry out the survey,” Mr Burke said. “It’s a huge piece of work … no-one’s putting a time frame on it.”
A council report says “many residents have expressed concern over the loss of significant trees and council’s lack of control over these assets”. Mrs Nash wants residents to rally on the issue and email her at eiratrees@optusnet.com.au
Glen Eira Debates 
October 4, 2011 at 2:28 PM
Protecting the best of the best, I smell a rat here, what will that be 2 or 3 trees in the 40 sq k that is GE.
There is no heart in this phoney tree protection plan.
It will be a joke
The developers could not have planned it better.
The same old game under Newton & his side-kick mouth
“too little too late”….. I say
October 4, 2011 at 8:55 PM
The comments attributed to Paul Burke are never changing. Everything always takes time, is a mammoth job and so on and so forth. Why couldn’t this council simply have an online form that residents could fill in with suggested trees and proper advertising in the leader and on their website. The arborists wouldn’t then have to “search” for these trees. Besides, we’re told that arborists do a three yearly check anyway. The records should already exist. Why aren’t these being used? Residents have every right to get fed up with the slow progress of anything that this council does – unless it happens to be associated with sports, gesac, car parks, and other hair brained expensive schemes. Trees, parks, and proper maintenance just don’t matter and neither does what people want.
October 4, 2011 at 9:16 PM
If they don’t give a damn about 178 trees going down at once in McKinnon then they for sure don’t give a damn about the odd tree here and there on private property. They can’t even look after the ones on public land.
October 5, 2011 at 1:32 AM
Another council nearby simply introduced a rule stating that if a tree had a certain sized trunk then pemission would have to be sought to bring out the chain saw. A punishment like a six month stay on the commencement of a development would fix most developer!!!!1
October 5, 2011 at 7:39 AM
I am all for protecting trees on public land and in public spaces and why GE doesn’t already have this register of significant trees is beyond me. As an above poster says residents could suggest trees and arborists do a check every three years. So why hasn’t it been done by now and, at the very least, why hasn’t a timeframe been set (lack of will?).
As for trees on private land, I am not sure. Trees grow and houses get extended – hence properties can suffer extensive damage. I don’t think the same protection should be extended to trees on private property.