LETTERS & EMAILS

DISAPPOINTED WITH THE CANCELLATION OF THE FRANKLIN ROAD LIGHTS We just booked a three night trip from Nelson to Auckland to come and celebrate Christmas and we’re so disappointed to hear that the light show on Franklin Road may have been cancelled.

Do you know where I can get in touch with any Instagram pages or Facebook pages to find out more, or what may be happening instead?

Surely we all need something fun to celebrate this time of year; we had the night all planned, dinner in Ponsonby following a tour through the lights. We were so looking forward to surprising our kids with a special Christmas treat. Would you happen to know of any Jayne Stevenson, Nelson

BE SCARED, VERY SCARED! AUCKLAND TRANSPORT IS PREPARING TO RUIN PONSONBY ROAD BY STEALTH These are AT’s objectives: make Ponsonby more vibrant; make it safer and easier to travel on bike or foot; create more open space for people; reflect and protect Ponsonby’s unique history and culture. THE PINE AND NATIVE FOREST ABOVE WESTERN SPRINGS PARK The Waitemata Community Board must be held accountable for significant environmental vandalism when it completes the planned felling of the pine and native forest in the Significant Ecological Area above Western Springs Park: lost biodiversity, destruction of a vast carbon store, instability of a steep site, inevitable and damaging slips. That’s on top of the loss of community respect for the Board and the Auckland Council, whose officers have denied democracy.

alternatives? Super sad! Thank you to the many who have spent the last five years trying to persuade the Board to respect the heartfelt wishes of an engaged and knowledgeable community which loves the park and the environment. Catherine Perry, Westmere

WESTERN SPRINGS FOREST IN A NUTSHELL The canopy trees are 100 years into a potential 150 life span and the latest ‘independent report’ has determined 1/4 of the 200 trees are ‘unsafe’. Yet only three of the Waitemata Local Board Members made the decision to manage those trees, save the native forest transitioning beneath and work with community - Alex Bonham, Adriana Christie, and Sarah Trotman. (Remember who to vote for in two years).

We now know what this is code for, and we also have a live demonstration - K Road - of the chaos to be caused and the business losses to be suffered, as well as the poor planning, design and execution – viz West Lynn. All Ponsonby Road needs is more even and more attractive footpaths.

And when did AT actually make something more “vibrant” or are they referring to the hideous bright red planter boxes at the top of Collingwood Street? Say No! to AT’s ‘improvements’ before it’s too late. You are warned. C Johnstone, Grey Lynn

PROPOSED CLEAR-FELLING OF TREES 100 years ago pine trees were planted on the steep (up to 45 degrees) slopes of Western Springs to successfully stabilise eroding landfill. Now the council will ‘harvest’ over 200 trees in the name of public safety. However, the difficult extraction of trunks and logs will not remove the dense systems of roots below the surface. These will eventually rot, and the small tunnels left in the soil will fill with water and cause massive erosion after a dry season - a process detailed in the book, ‘The Bridge to Nowhere’, where landslides from the hills covered the flats and proved to be the last straw to the unfortunate settlers, who then walked off the land.

Landslides from the now exposed slopes will dam Motions Creek and compromise the Council’s sewer and manhole system which runs beside the creek. Leachate and soil will run into the harbour. The other WLB Members ‘couldn’t see the forest for the trees’. The forest isn’t just the exotic canopy, it’s also the 70 year old native under storey; the forest floor including ferns and orchard and most important the soil - those 6” that all life on Earth survives upon where the the large trees feed the babies through the fungi.

These Waitemata Local Board members voted to uphold the resource consent to fell all 200 Monterey Pine trees by a method that would wipe out 3/4 of the natives and cost $2million.

Kerrin Leoni and Julie Sandilands voted for what the perceived Mana Whenua wanted, yet Ngati Whatua said they would support either opinion. Graeme Gunthorp voted to spend more now and do it all at once so to not leave responsibility or options to future Boards.

Richard Northey just did not move his position from the initial advice that the whole forest is dangerous even when Auckland Council’s latest report proves that wrong.

The next part of the process is to take the variations of the resource consent back to submitters and the appellants to the Environment Court Mediation via Town Planning. So the fight to protect this ‘gold standard’ example of transitioning a forest from exotics to natives is not done. If all else fails, then it’s time to occupy in March 2021 when bird breeding season is over and the chainsaws come out. Let’s not set the set back nature’s clock by 70 years! Gael Baldock, appellant to the Environment Court Mediation

No mention of rotting root systems appears in the recent report EREBUS NATIONAL MEMORIAL given to the local board approving this removal. No mention is given The Waitemata Local Board resolved at its meeting of 17 November to the present or future Angle of Repose of this landfill, which will in a four - three vote to approve the Erebus National Memorial. become ominously unstable a few years after extraction. The local board was made aware of the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ reports but The whole sorry story continues to demonstrate bad governance ignored these details in deciding to vote for the mass removal. that has plagued the Board. In its deliberations, what weight should William Gruar, Westmere the members give to the communities view on a matter? Probably the biggest breach was the position of Chairperson Northey. In WESTERN SPRINGS PINE FOREST presenting his opinion, he gave a pre-prepared speech meaning that My boyfriend and I enjoyed a staycation last month at the new he made his decision well before hearing the 16 residents and family boutique hotel, The Convent, in Grey Lynn. We were in room 10, the members who spoke at the meeting. Chapel Room, which had its own balcony where you get a glimpse of the water. Member Bonham was so upset at him doing this that she left the meeting in a rage. Time and time again the Chairperson takes The view looks towards Western Springs where you can see the pine a position in favour of sponsors (in this case the Ministry of Culture forest clearly in the distance. I’ve heard there is talk about felling the and Heritage) that are in conflict with the strong views of the pines, which would be an absolute shame. They should be allowed to community. Unfortunately, Waitemata has a further two years of this stay - all this nonsense about them falling down one day and injuring before we can vote again. someone is idiotic. Keith McConnell, keith@keithforwaitemata.com Deborah Key, Freemans Bay continued on p22

Opinions expressed in Ponsonby News are not always the opinion of Alchemy Media Limited & Ponsonby News.