The controversial felling that shaped Palmerston North

January is often a slow month for news.

All sorts of issues of marginal significance are thoroughly squeezed for news value and incidents that might be lost below the radar at other times of the year gain considerable prominence.

But 20 years ago this month in Palmerston North, the city was pumping out some really hard headlines and photos, most of them black and white, that attracted national and television coverage.

This January marks the 20th anniversary of the demise of the Fitzherbert Ave trees, a controversial development that left scars and shaped political fortunes.

The New Year dawned with angry, heart-felt and boisterous protest in full flight as the city council prepared to fell the janine.rankin@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

existing plane trees to make room for four-laning the avenue.

The all-clear for the trees to be chopped had taken four and a half years to achieve and all legal avenues for opponents wanting to stop the chop had been exhausted.

A very public, hands-on street drama on New Year’s Eve featured a grim reaper and executioner.

Work was due to begin on the first Monday of the month, when 18 of the 90-year-old trees between Marne St and Hardie St were to be felled.

Leading the protest was Save the Avenue spokesman and laterto-be-mayor Mark Bell-booth.

His attempts to keep the protest passive failed, with about 180 protesters refusing to give up their vigil and make way for the chainsaws, delaying the operation.

Even as the felling commenced, there were violent scenes as protesters resisted police and injuries were sustained – Bellbooth’s bloodied nephew Ben was caught on camera as he was arrested.

There were many arrests and several counter complaints about police handling of some of the protesters.

That first tranche of felling turned into such a shambles that Occupational Safety and Health slammed a prohibition notice on the project until such time as the council could guarantee the next phase would be ‘‘a damn sight safer’’.

Protesters continued their vigil, some sleeping in the trees, as a strong police presence was available to move in and clear the area.

The last person to be coaxed down from a tree, where he kept eluding efforts to extract him, was later-to-be councillor Chris Teosherrell.

Friends of the Avenue held a mock funeral for the trees.

The challenge for the council was to have the stumps removed, the holes patched and the street tidy in time for an international cricket match at Fitzherbert Park.

Friends of the Avenue took the ‘‘funeral’’ convoy past the park, waving banners such as ‘‘Welcome to Chainsaw City’’, in an attempt to catch the attention of visiting cricket spectators and media.

One surviving tree, the youngest of the batch at just eight years old, was salvaged and transplanted to Aokautere.

Meanwhile, at the council nursery, 36 two-year-old plane trees were being raised in anticipation of taking their places along the avenue as the scars began to heal.

Mayor at the time Paul Rieger said the council stood behind its decisions for improving the city’s key arterial transport route between The Square and Massey University.

It may be hard for people to remember, or for newcomers to the city to imagine, 20 years on, that it could take more than an hour to travel that route at peak times.

But he did regret ‘‘the very real community division’’ that erupted over the felling, and attempted a reconciliation with opponents and a citizens commission was set up to help.

The publicity helped later launch Bell-booth into the mayor’s office for one three-year term and Teo-sherrell went on to serve on the council for three terms, standing down in 2016.

The trees have since matured and although they might no longer create an overhead archway, they have gone a long way toward softening the grey seal and framing the avenue.

And at a funeral just before this Christmas, Rieger recalled the initiative of then city councillor, the late Vern Chettleburgh, to have the gardens around them planted in pink carpet roses.

Lest we forget.

End note

In other news from January 20 years ago:

Work was underway on the $3.5-million diversion of the Manawatu River at Fitzroy Bend. At the end of Ruahine St, the river was coaxed gently into its new channel. Prior to the work, the possibility of a breach of the stopbanks there could have seen one-third of the city inundated in a flood.

Memorial Park’s duck pond was overdue for a clean up, described by a resident as disgusting and a health hazard. A clean up was imminent.

Palmerston North Airport’s $3 departure tax continued to irk some passengers as it looked increasingly likely it would become a permanent feature. It went up to $5 and was abolished in October 2012.

The lack of co-ordination between Manawatu agencies involved in tourism was slated for holding back development of the visitor industry.