Oak-lined avenue saved

An avenue of oak trees has been saved from the chop but another ‘‘beautiful old’’ specimen in a Blenheim park will have to go.

A Marlborough District Council committee has agreed to put the $14,000 set aside to axe 70 oak trees along Dog Point Rd, near Renwick, towards underground powerlines, saving the trees from being felled.

The council opted to fell the decades-old trees earlier this year as their branches posed an ‘‘unacceptable risk’’ to 11,000-volt powerlines but reconsidered its position after tree lovers raised $86,300 in donation pledges to bury the powerlines.

Councillor Mark Peters was one of several to support the move at an assets and services committee meeting yesterday.

He suggested the council invoice and collect the donation pledges, despite this ‘‘not being part of council’s normal business’’, then pay the $99,590 cost of installing underground powerlines, ‘‘which [was] part of council’s normal business’’. His motion was approved.

Landowners were originally advised it would cost $160,000 to install underground powerlines along Dog Point Rd, but that dropped to $99,590, excluding GST, in June after tree lovers offered to do some of the work.

But this still left donations $13,290 short of the quote.

The report said the council could bring the total up to $100,300 by reallocating $14,000 towards burying the powerlines.

This would leave a $710 surplus, it said.

Last month Marlborough Lines said it would not contribute the cost of cutting down the trees towards burying the powerlines.

But Marlborough Landscape group co-chair and councillor Jamie Arbuckle warned it wasn’t the council’s job to save trees.

The avenue of oak trees had been planted on public land either side of Dog Point Rd about 30 years ago by a landowner.

‘‘It’s great these trees are not going to be cut down but it has to be said that these were a landowner issue,’’ Arbuckle said.

‘‘If you plant a tree in the wrong spot, then it’s your responsibility to maintain it.

‘‘There are other trees like this in the same situation.’’

The committee also approved the removal of a ‘‘beautiful old oak tree’’ in Pollard Park, north of Blenheim, at the meeting.

Deputy mayor Terry Sloan said the oak had suffered a severe fracture and, despite efforts to heal its limbs with a sling, it needed to be removed as it was a hazard to nearby playground equipment. Council reserves and amenities manager Jane Tito estimated the tree was about 75 years old. It was not listed on the council’s heritage tree register. ‘‘It’s a beautiful old oak tree but it’s been assessed by an arborist as a high risk, so we need to take it down as soon as we can,’’ she said.

Both matters will be referred on to the next full council meeting on August 8 for adoption.