The passionate debate over whether the government should delete clause 52 of the Resource Management Act is passing Tauranga by.

The clause only affects councils where there is a blanket protection for trees over a certain height – like in Auckland.
Tauranga's significant and protected trees are individually listed at council, and will retain their protection under whatever form the revised Resource Management Act takes, says Tauranga City Council policy planner James Danby.
'The amendment focuses on councils that keep blanket protection,” says James. 'We don't have any blanket protection.”
In Tauranga, significant trees are registered in the district plan.
All four Auckland city councils have blanket protection rules requiring resource consent to prune or fell large trees.
If clause 52 is kept in the revised RMA, the councils will have a two year period to retrofit their lists of individually protected trees. General tree protections will apply during that period.
The clause stops local authorities making blanket tree protection rules in urban areas unless the tree or group of trees is listed in a schedule to the district plan, or in a reserve or subject to a conservation management plan.
It is there to remove the need to process more than 4000 resource consent applications every year to prune or remove trees.