Many of us have been disturbed to see trees adjacent to the new shared pathway along Avoca Drive being removed in recent weeks. There was strong local support for the Shared Pathway project, with thousands of people signing a petition asking for this amenity in our town. Although these trees were identified for removal in the plans for the project which was on public display for comments last year, it’s another thing to see them being chopped down before our eyes.
Council has adopted a policy of replacing every tree they remove with two replacement trees, within the same suburb. We need to ensure they are enacting this policy with regard to the trees lost along Avoca Drive. To this end, ABCA wrote to the new CEO of Central Coast Council, Jamie Loader, this week, asking him to commit to this policy, and to share details with the community of the number of new trees to be planted, their location and the timeline for planting. You can see the letter here. We await Council’s response.
The plans for the Shared Pathway can be seen here. Trees slated for removal are marked in red. Green trees will not be removed. Most removals are in the section currently under construction (Stage 1). Stages 2 and 3 involve far fewer tree removals.