Walnut Tree -- Council Agrees to Cut it Down

In 2007 Mehrab-Khani took possession of 157-161 Bathurst St. On the same weekend he took possession, he started cutting the Walnut Tree, which has heritage significance, with a chainsaw and did not stop until I started taking photo's.

I sent them to Council and never heard from them again. In April 2008 along with my neighbour at 153 Bathurst St, we mailed a letter to Council complaining about Mehrab-Khani driving over the roots of the tree with a Bobcat and a car. I supplied photo's and have a copy of this letter. Nothing was heard from Council.

My wife and myself made two more phone calls as well as sending another 2 letters by email, one in April 2010, another on 10th May 2010. A generic response from Ross Willis of Hobart City Council saying that they received our letters about the lack of barrier that was supposed to be put around the tree, and that they would get back to me. He didn't. We also complained about the bobcats and grader and caterpillar driving around the base of the tree. Again I supplied photo's. The letter on 10th May was an 11 page letter detailing various breaches of building code and it was this letter that prompted a Council Blitz and inspection.

Mehrab-Khani was obviously tipped off about this because the day before the inspection in May 2010 he threw up a plastic tape barrier.

Notice even then was it a 3 metre boundary as required by Council. Meanwhile all types of excavation machinery around the tree carried on unabated.

On top of that I am also claiming that Unit 2 is built too close to the tree and too high, resulting in the branches being intertwined in the roof.

 

Now comes the interesting bit-- Mehrab Khani claims the tree is dying and wants to cut it down. (shock horror!) He supplies a letter from a tree expert from the Botanical Gardens that says it should be cut down. Council agree. We dispute this and Tribunal sets a hearing for 8th Dec 10. Now this would appear to be a cut and dried case of expert opinion prevailing, however Tony Jacobs does some brilliant detective work and seeks out the expert that was used in this assessment!

It turns out that the expert didn't really want the tree to be cut down at this point, but would have preferred to have waited until summer (it was assessed in June 10) to see how it handled the dry season, because there is a chance it can survive if it is fine at that point. We are now seeking to adjourn the Tribunal till Jan where we can get expert opinion on the condition of the tree in the dry summer season.

Thanks to some superb sleuthing from Tony, this issue is now alive again (pardon the pun). There is also engineering opinion that leaving the tree in the ground will stabilise the embankment that has already collapsed -- thanks to Craig Mackie for that. Craig is the lawyer representing Alistair and Jenny Home on the Melville side of the Development.

Last week I received a letter from Council lawyers, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I have complained about the treatment of the tree for over 2 and a half years, to tell me that when  Council became aware of the fact that there was no boundary, they enforced it!! Yeah, right.

This is pure fiction, I have letters and photo's with complaints going back to 2007 and nothing was ever done until an 11 page letter on 10th May 2010 initiated a Council inspection, and even then the "barrier" was not at 3 metres! All I can say to that letter is....where is the evidence? Where is the evidence Council acted to save the tree? There isn't any. There has been zero enforcement from Council to erect a barrier around the tree for well over 2 years.