A counter petition on a Tauranga City Council decision to thin Te Ngaio Road's pohutukawa has seen the city council change its approach.
The first petition was from residents affected by the trees and pleading for council to top thin or drop them to allow light onto properties that in winter are dark cold and damp.

File Pic.

The council's first decision was to fell every second tree, a decision opposed by residents who lived further down the street and didn't have them growing outside their own yards.
The counter petition protested the decision to remove half the trees when residents claim they were asked only for their opinions on thinning and topping the trees.

The trees in question. Picture supplied by Cr Murray Guy.

The Te Ngaio Road residents from numbers two to eight, who are affected by the Kermadec Island pohutukawa, also wanted the council's earlier decision revisited; saying removing every other tree would lead to some large gaps.
The owner of number six already has a gap in front of her property and doesn't want either of the two trees removed from her road verge.
The trees were planted over 20 years ago by the Mount Maunganui Borough Council. They were neglected after the 1989 amalgamation and they got away.
Doug Tamaki at number two says they grow like weeds and have a potential to grow to more than 15 metres. He volunteered to drop them himself and replant with a native species that has a three metre ceiling.
'We are pretty close to working something out,” says arborist Steve Webb.
The council was being asked to change the earlier decision to provide the flexibility for a negotiated decision and this has been granted.