Hobart lifts wraps on cheaper Christmas tree

HOBART will get its new Christmas trees — and they will cost about $60,000 less than a proposal recommended to aldermen by council staff.

New installations to help celebrate Christmas in the city will cost about $170,000, made up mainly of a 14m artificial tree at Mawson Place.

Yesterday at a special economic development and communications committee and then a full council meeting Hobart aldermen considered recommendations of a report by staff into Christmas tree options for the city.

This involved a $230,000 package for three installations — a 14m artificial tree at Mawson Place, a 7.6m tree in Elizabeth Mall and five Thuja occidentalis smaragd conifer trees in Wellington Court.

But Alderman Marti Zucco lodged an amendment in the committee meeting for the five conifer trees to be instead installed in Elizabeth Mall and, if council staff could not find similar species for Wellington Court, the existing Christmas tree be kept for another year.

The amendment was accepted at the committee and the new motion was accepted by the full council.

The tree in Mawson Place has a shelf life of about 10 years and Ald Zucco said he hoped it meant debate about Christmas trees in the city would end.

“I think at the end of the day we have all compromised a bit for a great result now and a great result in 10 years,” he said.

The council will buy trees to be grown at its nursery for any future use in the city.

Ald Anna Reynolds raised concerns about the potential for council funds to be spent on a security guard for the tree at Mawson Place

Earlier this month the Sunday Tasmanian reported a council review recommended it spend $45,000 each year for security for the proposed Elizabeth Mall tree.

Ald Helen Burnet also raised concerns about the price of the Mawson Place tree — $141,000 with installation costing between $10,000 and $20,000.

Ald Burnet, Ald Bill Harvey and Ald Philip Cocker were the only three who voted against the motion in the full meeting.

Christmas trees have been a much-debated issue in Hobart since the $35,000 metal structure in Salamanca Square was erected two years ago and was ridiculed in national media.