Port Stephens Council puts $100,000 toward dangerous tree lopping

Throughout the Bagnalls Beach estate are dozens of tallowwoods that buckle footpaths and frequently drop limbs in storms.

The Landcom estate, established 15 years ago, is now a patchwork of new sections of footpaths.

“If you want an idea of the cost you only have to count those new pieces of footpath,” Cr Nell said.

“It’s probably cost us in the order of $200,000.”

The matter was raised at Port Stephens Council on Tuesday night when councillors resolved to extend its dangerous tree program for another 12 months. 

Implemented after the April 2015 super storm it waived the permissions designed to preserve trees where there was imminent risk to people and property. 

The mayor, Cr Bruce MacKenzie, said it had been a big success “without denuding Port Stephens”. 

He even gained supported to allocate $100,000 toward tree removal in council reserves and footpaths.

Cr Nell took aim at Landcom for not only the tallowwoods but the gumtrees planted on Bagnalls Beach Road that are over 20 metres high.

“[Landcom] were in the habit of planting these forest giants in the footpaths,” he said.

“I would be happy if they were removed so long as the council staff replace them with something more suitable. Maybe then we should send the bill to [Premier] Mike Baird.”

The state-owned corporation Urban Growth NSW, or Landcom as it used to be known, marketed the lots on the leafy outlook of the estate.

Cr Nell has lived in the estate for more than 10 years.

He even paid to have the tallowwoods removed from outside his house and replaced them with more appropriate trees.

The deputy mayor, Cr Chris Doohan, also supported the program’s extension. He said one 90-year-old Raymond Terrace man was “so grateful” he cried because “we had potentially saved a child’s life” when a large tree next to a bus stop was cut down.

Urban Growth NSW had not responded at deadline.