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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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erest we deeply appreciate your support throughout this process and will keep you updated as developments occur the agreement signed today is a wonderful testimony to grass roots democracy it s because of you so thankyou there was a meeting in civic park at 7 30am on 20th october to let people know the good the bad and the ugly in the virtually non negotiable agreement with newcastle city council on the laman street figs expert determination hope to see you there late notice sorry we ll try to post here and our lovely facebook friends will post there and there may even be an update on the fence at the darby street end of laman street and who wants to have brunch on sunday 23rd oct at civic park to catch up not firmed up yet this idea but i m happy to go on my own if that s what happens 10am 18 october 2011 firstly thank you very much to everyone for coming to the figs community picket line it has been wonderful all the contribution of time so willingly given firstly thank you very much to everyone for coming to the figs community picket line it has been wonderful all the contribution of time so willingly given save our figs will speak to the general manager phil pearce at newcastle city council tomorrow morning hoping to ensure that agreement can be reached on expert evaluation of the trees whilst our progress is looking very hopeful and there was no action in the street today we cannot guarantee that we may need to start up the picket line again at short notice so keep alert but not alarmed we will post up as much information as we can we have decided to post a bulletin on the fences at the derby street end of laman street let everyone know 18 october 2011 sof and newcastle residents met in civic park this morning before the meeting with the gm to talk about the agreement and a couple of little issues in it as well as the list of experts suggested by council part of me regretted h0w close we came to finishing a process of choosing experts a couple of months ago but regrets are not helpful a few people will be contacting mr pearce the gm in the morning to finalise the document i m optimistic in spite of a couple of quirky things in the agreement like its reference to procedural fairness call me crazy with fatigue cheers 17 october 2011 the general manager has announced that he is to have talks with save our figs tomorrow morning having had talks with councillors tonight the general manager has formed the view that it is not practical to implement the resolution of 19 july 2011 to remove the trees and is looking at way to move forward the good news is no chainsaws tomorrow and a real opportunity to try to resolve the dispute likely to be a briefing at laman street in the morning however not so early very very very urgent figs it rally please attend rally on steps of town hall this afternoon at 4 30pm 17 october 2011 gm has called a crisis meeting meeting with councillors this afternoon the outcome of the meeting will be critical we need as many people as possible at the rally this is crunch time please attend 15 october 2011 barry o farrell nsw premier is now the key to saving the figs please contact him today urging him to assist the council out of the technical legal dilemma it is in by either an interim heritage order or declaring the rta the road authority this would not be overriding the council but assisting it out of a pickle and would have strong community support mobile 0459 601 230 ph 9228 5239 office premier nsw gov au 14 october 2011 fig update friday 9pm no tree removal work tomorrow saturday according to the gm however no guarantees past that i e could resume on sunday it will be another frenetic day of lobbying tomorrow please drop in to the picket line if you can and come along to sips and nibblies at 4 30pm saturday at the darby st end of laman st to find out the latest we need another big turnout for this to get the state government to intervene please pass this on to your networks 13 10 2011 urgent urgent newcastle city council general manager is now saying that the removal of the trees will continue since the 9 councillors cannot legally over ride the earlier decision please urgently write to our state politicians both liberal and shadow asking them to intervene send emails to tim owen http www nsw liberal org au legislative assembly tim owen html the minister for roads office gay minister nsw gov au the shadow minister for roads robert furolo lakemba parliament nsw gov au the minister for local government don page ballina parliament nsw gov au the shadow minister for local government sopie cotsis sophie cotsis parliament nsw gov au the minister for the hunter michael gallacher office gallacher minister nsw gov au the shadow minister for the hunter linda burney linda burney parliament nsw gov au ask them to ensure that the trees are not caught up in the deadlock now created by newcastle city council where the majority of councilllors now see the sense in proceeding with an assessment of the trees when it has an earlier resolution to remove the trees explain how the community has responded to the plan to remove the trees and how the importance of the trees to the newcastle community has been demonstrated by recent protests explain how urgent intervention is required since the council has immediate plans to remove the trees also please come to laman street tomorrow morning at 5 30am to ensure that our voice is heard 13 10 2011 a reprieve thanks to 9 councillors agreeing to have a brisbane arboricultural expert come down to assess the trees if the general manager s legal advice says that s ok and thanks to the gm for halting work for another day see you for breakfast in 5 minutes at the dawson st end 10 10 2011 11pm two things are on tomorrow meeting up at about dawn ie 6am this will happen every morning until we know these trees are safe and meeting on the steps of the town hall from 4 30pm tuesday on to let councillors know this issue has not gone away let your families and friends know it s important that we let the elected council know that the greatest act of vandalism in the history of the city should not go ahead and that it is up to them to find a way out of this terrible bind perhaps the answer is in the words of the resolution itself of july 19th remove the trees as soon as practical how is it practical if it creates this much loss of faith in our elected councillors and this much dissent and ill feeling 10 10 2011 am the second community picket line against the destruction of the trees in laman street will start early this morning see you there yesterday the darby street fair was on and people queued to sign the petition wore stickers naming the councillors whose vote secured the decision to fell the trees which is already the second largst tabled petition in nsw great ish day 9 10 2011 the darby street fair is on tomorrow so there should be loads of people walking past the beautiful fig trees it will be a peaceful day unlike friday when many concerned individuals came together in a spontaneous way to bear witness to the vandalism that removing these trees represents you can read about friday here on the herald s website there s a chronology of events and video footage which clearly shows that the police response was way out of proportion to the behaviour of the people in the street 8 10 2011 1 45pm drop by and say hello to the people sitting at the darby st end of laman st you couldn t keep people away if you tried the darby st fair is on tomorrow a great time for crowds to walk past and see what it s all about we ll have stickers to hand out and the councillors contact details if you can spare twenty minutes or a couple of hours we d love to see you 8 10 2011 yesterday was a black day in newcastle we gathered in the park before dawn and moved up to the street at about 6 or so and were elated to see that some protestors had quietly quickly and efficiently gone under the barricades and locked onto poles and climbed trees nothing could be done for what felt like hours until these heroes were removed by police rescue and marched off to be charged the rest of us set up a community picket line at each end of the street and at the darby st end when the trucks arrived the protestors sat down and couldn t be moved they were more aggressive at the dawson st end and police did council s dirty work for them by pushing into the crowd and assaulting a number of people and ignoring cries for assistance when someone was injured at least 6 people were injured then the trucks came in and immediately tree climbers went up and started to chainsaw major branches when the first one fell it 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 shar...