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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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ains and visual pollution rave about the ugliness of an industrial commute past coal loaders and how in need of trees that drive is 4th july 2010 the date for the briefing to councillors about the laman street trees has finally been announced it s tuesday 27th july 2010 at 5 30pm in the hunter room at the town hall it s open to the public this week my posts were the humble tuckeroo about spacing of street trees and how some of them aren t prospering as well as i d like them to and an arborist chatroom about a public forum with some scary anti tree talk coming from arborists as well as odds and ends of news about trees elsewhere 27th june 2010 in a week where we changed prime ministers and the bp oil rig continued to discharge millions of gallons of oil into the gulf of mexico the problems of our cbd figs seemed small and fortunately nothing happened to them i still managed to go on about a few things branding and remember this is not about right tree right place is about how well known the trees are in newcastle as is the plan to cut the mature figs down old and new photos was inspired by a book i found about the history of the conservatorium which was housed for many years in laman street wauchope figs and too much other news as usual is about a town further north whose successful fig saving fight inspired the moves to conserve the trees in laman street but where some trees will soon go because of infrastructure damage and the last post for the week was when will laman street figs come back to council was written when council meeting agenda listings for july a week away consisted of an empty page 19th june 2010 this week s posts were about the felling of 100 year old hill s figs at wahroongah station in sydney figs in wahroongah gone comparing the transparency there with that in newcastle bee in my bonnet about wahroongah figs vs laman street figs and the problems of being a regional centre rather than the capital of a state and a safe seat to boot newcastle neglected again newcastle put in a bid for a paltry sum of money to start the extension to the art gallery but was unsuccessful such a short sighted decision 14th june 2010 it s the queen s birthday long weekend now there s an anachronism but everyone just loves a long weekend and i ve written two posts found some public art i didn t know existed and dragged the family even the dog on our first instalment of walking every suburb in newcastle the poor dog has had an ear infection it turns out and this manifested itself for about two months as anxiety and we couldn t get her to walk the hundred yards to the corner shop the picture here of the gutter deserves more prominence than it s so far had buried on a council web page and in one of posts here it s the damage supposedly done to a fig by the 2007 pasha bulker storm and the reason three of the figs were removed see that gap that s the damage no one was squished no car was crushed no branch fell off this gap represented potential instability anyway the post day one of a long weekend was inspired by an article in the paper about damage caused by trees and how much this costs the ratepayerand how can we tar the laman street trees with the same brush the second post figs in wahroongah gone was my response to the unpleasant news that 80 year old figs on a sydney train station were removed because of uneven pavement 11th june 2010 the laman street figs survived more windy weather this week new post today bits and pieces mostly about how we should be demanding more of developers to ensure this town becomes more beautiful not more ordinary 8th june 2010 new post did you know bitumen can hold up trees more rants about council website spin on an historical and hysterical note i was torturing myself by reading old council documents about laman street s trees and found a briefing given in february 2009 in response to councillors resolution that council replace the two removed hill fig trees with an appropriate species at the eastern end of laman st near newcastle region art gallery one on each side of the street as a matter of priority council receive a report on the planting options to replace trees lost in the cultural precinct area of laman street as a result of the june 2007 storm councillors resolved this on 9 september 2008 we as naive residents can t even imagine the meetings of non elected people that would have gone on in back rooms after this what was supposed to happen was the two trees felled by council after the pasha bulker storm were to be replaced straight away instead we got almost two years of trying desperately to get out of this and worse they re determined to take all the other trees out too 7th june 2010 new post newsflash windy weekend failed to fell figs is a short post on a recent page on council s website and it s the beginning of the whale migration north it started sadly with a whale washed up on bar beach 19th may 2010 last night s council meeting received the scape consultants report on the charette sharon claydon an alp councillor moved that the report should lie on the table until a briefing can be given by council officers and a public information session can be held this was welcomed by many in the gallery who still feel that tree maintenance measures haven t been explored fully it was something of a surprise that more time was granted as a member of the community had been disappointed earlier in the day when in a phone call to council it had been asserted that mr marsden s report was an adequate exploration of this issue it was pleasing to see eventuate the promised information sessions that are supposed to be part of a charette in the herald the day before councillor nuatali nelmes alp had expressed some concern about whether it was advisable putting out a report for public comment when the funds to carry out the works suggested therein aren t available more soon 1 4thmay 2010 the public voice presentation done at council this week on behalf of the laman street action group was terrific there was a packed gallery listening to fee drelincourt and john de bruyn summarise the charette and discuss the desire of the community as they see it to explore tree maintenance options as well as council s perhaps preferred option of tree removal the gallery were politely vocal in their disagreement of council officers assertion to elected councillors that every option was explored at the charette that was held in march and april one can be hopeful therefore that measures to retain and care for the trees will be canvassed in the report that is to go to council next week it was fantastic to see so many people at the meeting see you all again next tuesday when the report is delivered what happens after that is that the ideas in the document will be put out there for public comment and will be voted on in august 9th may 2010 update in the next couple of weeks newcastle city council will be receiving the report from scape the consultants who coordinated the community consultation process on the laman street civic precinct in march and april back in december 2009 council asked to look at the issue again in may this year at a public voice session of council on tuesday 11th may speakers will address council about the community consultation process as well as about the laman street trees on 18th may the report will be delivered to councillors at the charette the attendees were informed that the process from then on will be that the ideas that came out of the community design process will be put out for public comment and returned to council in august councillors can be proud that such an inclusive process has been offered to the community in which residents can feed back to them their ideas for the future of this important precinct they can also be proud of the risk abatement measures they have taken in laman street which gives council the confidence to view the street as safe so that in the years to come we can work to maintain and improve the health of the trees and preserve the beauty of this important and well loved part of newcastle i ve summarised the report by mr marsden in my latest post it s difficult to reduce this comprehensive document down to 1 page but not impossible see you at the council meeting on tuesday the following is the home page as it appeared before this update with a new picture when newcastle city council decided to rip out the hill s figs in laman street newcastle residents on the whole were appalled and saddened this is especially because of the tragedy that befell tyrrell street before the removal of half the mature trees in that street it was one of the most beautiful streets in the world the equivalent of almost 2 of the population of the newcastle lga signed petitions requesting the council revisit this decision and take their opinions into account this was in the space of three weeks this website is an attempt to give the community a voice what can you do sign the petition this was presented to council in december 2009 but the more names the better contact your councillors their contact details are here how the councillors voted at the rescission motion is available here of course even if a councillor voted to give the trees a reprieve until may does not guarantee that s he will not change her his mind at the next vote so letting them know how you feel is still worthwhile equally if councillors who voted to remove the trees prematurely are made aware could they be more aware of the depth of community feeling against the move it is remotely possible that they will change their mind if you see something around town that worries you eg a sign warning you that a tree is about to be cut down or a playground that is about to lose its play equipment or picnic tables or a pocket park that looks as though it s about to be sold or developed please contact council and tell them your thoughts or contact the media or contact us don t just put up with it 20 4 2010 the first post was and so it begins back in december 09 you could start reading here or you can go to the monthly archive in the right hand bottom corner and find posts that way and pick and choose what to read 18th january 2010 to find the most recent entry in this blog see under recent posts to find a comment you made go the page you were commenting on or look under recent comments double click on any photo to enlarge it if you have any ideas or want to make a contribution email me at lamanfigs gmail com 20th january 2010 look at some sydney pics do they remind you of anywhere 25th jan 2010 this page needs pictures this plane tree at the zoo in paris was planted obviously a long time ago french risk management for a very old tree 30th jan 2010 the laman street action group will be having its first meeting soon consider subscribing to the blog if you want to be made aware of the dates and anything else you need to know consider sending a comment or a piece for inclusion people would love to hear what others think there are huge numbers of people indeed the majority of newcastle people in my opinion who support preserving laman street as a beautiful thoroughfare let your voice be heard 31st jan laman street to be discussed at the council meeting 2nd feb the plan is to have a charade charette in march where all 40 45 newcastle people not including churches the rta art gallery staff etc will have a focus group not called that and be talked at by interact with experts in all sorts of stuff but council officers haven t made up their mind and the trees removal is not a foregone conclusion see today s post 10th feb 2010 council are calling for people to nominate to attend the workshops or to write to them about their vision for the laman street precinct it takes 60 seconds to fill in the form and about the same to email them to keep their hands off the trees cheers 21st feb 2010 on 9th feb i put in a freedom of information request for the radar report that s the investigation done in december that found that the roots were better than council suspected i phoned two arborists to get a copy of this first in january before it was received by council and then in february after it had been received council insisted i could only have it via foi this is in spite of the fact that they claim it s going to be released as part of the information given to newcastle residents in or after the charette i m sorry but i think that s sus why would this whole process not be transparent council can save 450000 if they leave the trees alone that s the alleged cost of removing and replacing the trees that are there i also put in a request for correspondence between mr hewett the council arborist at the time and mr marsden the external arborist as well as a request for details of how much council paid mr marsden for his report not long to go till we get to see the report 28th feb 2010 the council have a team trenching around the roots of the trees again they re filling the holes with sand which cannot possibly be good for such magnificent trees tuesday is the last day council can either release the radar report to me or tell me to jump through more hoops to get it can t wait 12th march i received the radar report but only after much to ing and fro ing 22nd march the charette was as much of a waste of time as i expected a complete whitewash dealt with trees almost not at all i suppose it enabled a few of us to meet again so that was useful memorable comments like newcastle has moved beyond tree preservation and the radar report was inaccurate because it was done in haste and plane trees are diseased an example of this is that the trees go brown in autumn and comments they should have made because that s what they meant almost every fully grown tree you see in newcastle has 26 diseases or root rot or isn t native and is politically incorrect or is damaging the footpath or causing flooding or doesn t go with the trendy new design we have thought up at a committee meeting and it doesn t matter if we chop this stand of figs down that is an important food source for bats because they re clever at finding new food sources just makes you want to throw up 25th march the group fig jam will be holding a post charette meeting in laman street under the fig trees on tuesday 30th march at 4 30pm everyone who wants to save these trees is welcome the trees were discussed at the parks and playgrounds meeting last night and people who went to the charette had a chance to put together a submission doug lithgow from parks and playgrounds will be at the fig jam meeting next week as well 1st april charette post mortem is happening 8th april 9 12 that s a thursday morning it ll be fun oh that s what i said about the charette 9th april 2010 i ve written some thoughts about the charette and about how the audience managed to get the message across that we want to keep our figs for as long as possible it would be a mistake however to think that council s plans to get rid of these f...
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