File photo. Photo: Image by Avenue, Creative Commons
For four years a local resident has been asking New Plymouth District Council to cut a giant pohutukawa tree branch that is blocking ambulance access to his driveway.
Over time, one branch from a giant pohutukawa tree growing on a council berm outside 83-year-old Colin Harvey's place has grown to the point that it is blocking some access.
That meant when Colin's wife Jill needed urgent medical attention the ambulance could not get past.
"I didn't know it was a problem until I called the ambulance about four years ago and the ambulance driver came down the driveway and said, 'Oh, I can't get [the] ambulance down because the tree's in the way'," Harvey told Checkpoint.
"So since then I've been trying ... to get something done about it."
Harvey said his wife has needed the ambulance three times and ambulance staff have had to use their neighbour's driveway.
He said that was unsatisfactory.
"It's two narrow strips on concrete with grass on the sides ... sloping away. So if the ambulance came off those concrete strips down the neighbour's driveway, it would get stuck.
"It would need a tow truck to pull it out."
Harvey said he liked the pohutukawa tree and he did not want to see it go, just the branch that was causing problems.
"The tree's been a good old tree over the years ... [the council] seem to think I [want] the whole tree to go.
"But 10 to 12 branches come off this big tree and having just one branch cut off it doesn't really matter."
Despite the struggle with council, he said he had not been tempted to give the tree a hack himself.
He was worried about other people resorting to getting rid of the tree altogether.
"The wife got a call this morning and said somebody would come in and poison the tree for me, well I don't want that to happen.
"[It's] a bit of worry [that] some nutcase will poison it."
Harvey did get a visit from the council today, but he said at the moment he was in limbo, "nothing's happening".
In a statement, New Plymouth District Council said it had already removed some of the tree's lower branches hanging over the driveway but that it was a notable tree protected by the district plan.
However, after an arboriculture specialist visited the property this afternoon, the council said it would take another look to see if the large branch could be removed in a way that would not compromise the native tree.
