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description= This blog is a diary of the struggle to save an avenue of significant and beautiful street trees - a struggle that was ultimately unsuccessful. It pitted community volunteers against a toxic council administration and a conservative elected council - and at the end, some of the media and the riot police. It still amazes…;
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was devastating at 3 15 campaigners managed to get into the street and stood on the library steps which made it unsafe to keep working so you could be forgiven for not seeing a lot of desecration today that feels good today and tomorrow sat 8 10 and sun 9 10 we believe the police when they tell us there will be no work in the street so we are not expecting to have to do this over the weekend so you get to go and take some more photos and listen to those birds and bats that ncc claim aren t there come monday we will need to go back to bear witness to more of this injustice and vandalism so anyone who can come at any time would be valued more soon after 6am on friday 7th october 2011 newcastle city council contractors will start felling the laman street trees this will take something like 4 days save our figs inc has exhausted all legal and political possibilities to save these trees see you in civic park at 5am to bear witness to this appalling act of destruction then we ll be changing the name of this blog to didn tsaveourfigs wordpress com kidding friday 7 10 2011 come to laman street any time through the day text and call your friends to come look at the facebook page for updates 12 activists are in trees or chained by the neck and arms to poles the police rescue squad have arrived councillor bob cook was booed and two council managers were booed by the crowd the initiator of the risk allegations council s arborist even came to the street to have a look once his presence was made known to the crowd he left or perhaps he just realised that standing around in a beautiful street looking at beautiful trees wasn t a fair way to spend council s money for over two years council management has alleged the trees are a danger to traffic can you believe that and the public the community remains unconvinced by this as this city is full of trees just like these and they survive gale after gale after gale the community s e xperts disagree the trees are as dangerous as council says and save our figs believe that if a beautiful street like this is to be destroyed it needs to be done based on evidence we ve been calling for an independent expert assessment of all the reports that have been produced to date a local businessman offered 15 000 to help save our figs pay half the cost of this process council passed this resolution to have independent assessment on sept 13th but a motion to rescind reverse was debated at october s first council meeting the effect of the vote was that independent assessment will not happen and the trees will be felled probably sometime this week we hear it won t be on thursday save our figs inc is seeking legal advice about whether there is anything further that can be done to stop this appalling decision watch this space you still need to email your councillors and tell them it s shameful they made this monumental mistake you need to remember your councillors names for when local government elections come around again you may want to leave cards flowers fluffy toys ribbons posters on the fence at the end of darby street and come and form a community picket line when the chainsaws move in and if you see anything happen leave a comment on the blog remember that s the most important thing you have to do this will follow these councillors and managers all the days of their lives ed 6 10 2011 5 10 2011 council voted last night for the last possible time the effect of the vote is that independent assessment the process of examining council s and the community s evidence re the alleged risk of the trees is halted this means that the council resolution of july 19th to fell the trees as soon as practicable can be enacted we are seeking legal advice about our options going down the legal route is not something save our figs as a community organisation wanted to do however given that we don t believe the trees are anywhere near as dangerous as council say they are given that council management have said they want to stop independent assessment o prevent any damage to the reputations of management or council consultants given that removing the trees does not look to us to be about safety but to be about anzac centennial place or some other sterile hot repaved space we feel that the only ethical step we can take is to look at every avenue to save these trees for generations to come the councillors who voted against independent assessment are boyd buman cook jackson king luke and sharpe page edited 5 10 2011 if this is the first time you re reading about newcastle s urban forest problems this blog is a small contribution to newcastle s ongoing need to be green and more beautiful over the last couple of years our council has been making lots of noise about wanting to get rid of an avenue of mature fig trees the hill s figs in laman street which is the first step in ridding us of all our mature trees this the home page has turned into a chronology of events of sorts if you re visiting for the first time consider reading what s the story behind save our figs and key documents and links the images in the blogroll on the right of the page are easy too mark hartley s updated review of the laman street tree assessments can be read here 29 9 2011 i changed this link so it didn t have my address on the front page otherwise it s the same document 30 9 2011 come to the council meeting on tuesday 4th october that starts at 5 30 and make your views known when councillors try to rescind the decision to have independent expert assessment meet on the steps of town hall from 4 30 on arrive late if you have to wear whatever you like leave whenever you like go up two flights of stairs in the town hall if you re arriving from king street then turn left staff are very helpful and will point you to where the meeting is if you get lost contact your councillors and tell them how important independent assessment is if these trees are to be felled newcastle needs to know that this is because they are as dangerous as council staff allege a claim most of us find impossible to believe councillors details are here it may be easier for some people to copy and paste their addresses for one common email lord mayor john tate kmcpherson ncc nsw gov au cr aaron buman aaronbuman smartchat net au cr bob cook bobcook pacific net au cr scott sharpe scott sharpe pacific net au cr dr graham boyd graham boyd pacific net au cr mike king mike king pacific net au cr shayne connell shayne connell pacific net au cr brad luke brad luke pacific net au cr sharon claydon sharon claydon pacific net au cr michael osborne ncc mosborne hunterlink net au cr tim crakanthorp tim crakanthorp pacific net au cr nuatali nelmes nuatali nelmes pacific net au cr mike jackson mike jackson pacific net au 27 9 2011 another council meeting yet another rescission motion on october 4th councillors will debate a rescission motion in relation to independent expert assessment 21 9 2011 correction at the time of writing no rescission motion has formally been lodged see next paragraph in spite of people present at council s meeting thinking there was one and the herald reporting there was one nothing has been lodged so watch this space 20 9 2011 cr bob cook has lodged a rescission motion against the resolution for independent expert assessment presumably this is for the reasons he has already given that the reputations of council experts and staff will be called into question the rescission motion will be heard on october 4th sigh 21 9 2011 there s a new page on the blog it s a response and correction to cr cook s youtube video it s a long read but it s a long video and needs lots of correcting on tuesday 13th september 2011 council voted on independent assessment of the laman street trees councillors voted 6 6 and john tate used his casting vote so that this went through so another sigh of relief congratulations to councillors this is a win win for them they go through a transparent process to reach the right answer if an independent assessment show the trees are unsafe the community will believe it 3 9 2011 i uploaded the original version of the radar report and come and visit the tent embassy no longer needed cr 22 9 2011 31 8 2011 we re calling for council to enter into third party determination on the safety or risk of the laman streeet trees this would involve a retired judge or barrister reviewing the reports produced to date by both sides ideally in a setting where experts would be available save our figs inc obviously believe the trees are safe but if this process found otherwise that would be the end of the matter ask your councillor for their support in this if these trees have to be left as metre high stumps for an indeterminate length of time it needs to be based on convincing evidence 31 8 2011 it turns out the spending on laman street is like something out of the weimar republic inflation has run riot in newcastle since july council admin has allegedly spent over 100 000 without a single interesting report to show for it yeah right 29 8 2011 we had a crowd for the community picket line in civic park today from 5 30am onwards we have a last minute reprieve three councillors john tate sharon claydon and michael osborne have been helpful by trying to ensure that procedural fairness is observed in this process 11pm the trees are safe until sept 13th when they will be discussed at a council meeting since two councillors were missing from the meeting where the last crucial vote was taken and because councillors were not briefed on the process of mediation and because councillors were not fully informed about the costs of third party determination the issue should go back to the elected council so the birds and bats and fluffy things are still happy in the trees the trees still form a stunning backdrop to civic park and the identity of this part of town is intact and the frightening and ugly business of turning those healthy and stable trees into stumps didn t happen today more later did you know that if the trees are felled they will be reduced to metre high stumps over 4 days that will then adorn one of our most important streets until several million dollars are found for the development that council has been talking about for a year what vision what creativity what respect for this city thankyou newcastle city council 26 8 2011 council management have won aided by elected councillors the laman street trees will be felled after each item of business relating to the magnificent fig trees were voted down one after another last night elected councillors rejected an opportunity to examine the risk evidence by a process of third party determination they rejected the opportunity to use dynamic testing to confirm the stability or otherwise of the trees and they failed to rescind their appalling july 19th decision to fell all 14 saying they re a traffic hazard the councillors who voted to remove the trees are graham boyd aaron buman shayne connell bob cook brad luke mike jackson and scott sharpe i believe several of these are rumoured to imagine they are lord mayor material amazing absent were councillors king and nelmes i suppose council s arborist said it all when he told the urban planning and design advisory committee in july that to review previous reports would call into question the reputations of the arborists who produced them we couldn t have that a job well done the latest post is extraordinary council meeting about the rumoured meeting this thursday mediation joint statement 18 8 2011 mr mchugh was fantastic and everyone worked really hard to reach an outcome what s new on this page you can read two assessments of the trees in laman street done by a company called treelogic first in 2008 and then this year dry stuff but easy to understand most of the trees were thought to have decades left in them in 2008 this year their useful life expectancy was zero double click on each page and it will enlarge in twitterspeak wtf on 4 8 2011 i wrote fig tree dispute headed for mediation which is now old news after council wrote a long letter to mr mchugh he declined to be involved in mediation shame the issues now are will he change his mind will a new mediator be appointed or does it need to go back to council to appoint a new person laman street went back to council this week the result was that save our figs and council were to enter into a mediation process with justice michael mchugh before insurance cover lapses on laman street the vote was 6 6 so the lord mayor used his casting vote to enable mediation it was a night of some drama with more people attending than the chamber could hold cr buman absent cr sharpe bringing his six broken ribs late and staying only long enough to vote to fell these beautiful trees cr connell declaring that a 6000 cost is too much to expect council to pay and cr jackson voting in favour of mediation here s a youtube video of an interview with two very famous arborists about the management of laman street http www youtube com watch v k0hr80uto0q the arborists conference was held in parramatta recently one of the highlights was the award of merit presented to mark hartley the community commissioned arborist who did peer reviews of the council s flawed reports on laman street 30th july 2011 we had a a picnic in civic park today from 11am till 2pm it was a lovely get together where we gathered more petition signatures listened to some speakers including the lord mayor and councillors nelmes and claydon and watched some world war 1 re enactors aim a pretend mortar at the council administration building and we enjoyed the trees for what could well be the last time nice coincidence that it s national tree day the fight to save these trees was lost this month when councillors voted 7 5 to remove them efficient council officers prepared to fell the laman street trees before the vote to remove them had even been taken on july 19th 7 councillors who presumably think making wrong decisions is better than making the right ones as long as they re not seen to be thinking about anything for too long made the wrong decision tonight featured photos burano is a small island off venice unlike newcastle they don t do beige well it s gorgeous recent posts are about the latest working party meetings and the workshop held to come up with positive and creative solutions to managing the alleged risk in laman street omg you would not believe these people and council s insurer has brought pressure to bear to fell the trees by the end of august bizarre haste after all these years and in the middle of a regime of looking after the fig trees and in spite of no formal updated risk assessments apart from a single documented matheny and clark assessment which apparently rates large street trees badly whether they re in good or bad condition weird we have exciting new black fences in laman street oh and one of the councillors could not restrain himself any more he wants to chop the tr...
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