A former Tauranga City councillor is disputing a suggestion to remove and replace the city's silver birch trees, saying the committee responsible should be abolished.

The tree management subcommittee is requesting the city's tree management policy be amended to classify silver birches as an ‘inappropriate street tree' and recommends TCC actively removes and replaces them.

Silver birches along Ngahere Street in Cherrywood.

Silver birches make up 28 per cent of tree felling requests and petitions submitted to council and the subcommittee's proposal is aimed at reducing the issue.

There are 748 silver birch trees on Tauranga road verges and 146 in reserves, making up three per cent of the city's street trees. Removing them is estimated to cost $387,841.

Former councillor Mary Dillon says the request is 'a piece of ad-hockery” and the tree management subcommittee should be ended.

She says the subcommittee should not exist because it is a direct incursion into operational matters of the council.

'I've no idea why the tree subcommittee has even been set up. It should be abolished, it's completely and utterly inappropriate.”

Mary discovered the agenda item shortly before yesterday's meeting and was appalled at the lack of community consultation.

'The process they were going to use is purely focussed on people who have trees outside their property and not on anybody else. The trees on the streets do not belong to the people who have got them outside their properties - they belong to the entire community.

'If they want to do something like that, then as a first step before they do anything at all, they need to engage in some community consultation.”

A harsh critic of other subcommittee decisions, Mary suggests TCC review its Vegetation and Tree Management Policy.

The subcommittee is operating as a small unit out on its own, says Mary, and does so by ignoring the objectives and principles of the vegetation strategy, particularly where the policy is specific about preserving the city's mature trees.

'Maybe they read it, but they sure as hell don't apply it. My view is that the committee needs to be abolished.”

Mary also raised the issue of felled silver birches not being replaced – noting 13 trees removed when 15th Ave was widened, which were never replaced.

'What they should be doing is going back, looking at what's been going on over the last two or three years – notably the removal of a lot of trees – and saying to the community ‘We don't seem to have got this quite right, how can we do it better?'”

Following an overview of the policy, councillors should step out of the whole issue as it is an operational matter, says Mary.

She believes residents should still be able to talk to councillors about tree issues, but councillors should refer the issue to TCC staff to deal with.

'I think it's time a few of us said ‘enough is enough'. We need to respect our tree heritage. We actually need them in the city for our own health. They are what clean up all the fumes while you are sitting waiting for the change of the lights.”

After some debate councillors yesterday decided to review the tree policy, but will hold a workshop first to discuss all the issues raised.