Christchurch school board decides: Old oak trees to stay

A cluster of 10 oak trees nearly a century old have been given a reprieve from the axe after plans to fell them failed to gain sufficient support.

The trees, planted at Halswell School by the School Rd fence line in the mid-1920s, were to be removed to build an astroturf play area pending the approval of the school community.

The survey closed on Friday, with 61 per cent of the parents, senior pupils and School Rd residents who took part voting to move ahead with the plan.

However, this did not meet the 75 per cent approval threshold set by the school board of trustees in order to remove the trees.

Originally just four trees were considered for removal.

However, an arborist report stated this would weaken the remaining trees and pose a danger.

It recommended that no trees be removed, but said removing all 10 trees was preferable to removing only some of them.

Board chairman Rob Dixon said the importance of the decision meant the board chose to consult the school community.

“This included providing them with all available reports to allow for the most informed decision possible,” Dixon said.

The play area was planned to be 32 metres long by 20 metres wide and be bordered by native plants to replace the oak trees.

Creating it was one way the school proposed to spend a $400,000 government school investment package.

This needed to be allocated by the end of the year in order for the school to retain funding.

“The money tagged for this will go towards other projects around the school,” Dixon said.

Principal Stuart Cameron said the school had an expanding roll of more than 700 pupils, and the astroturf court aimed to provide more space for them to play
in winter.

“The area proposed is underutilised for playing compared to the rest of the school.”

He denied that online criticisim of the plan was behind the move to put the decision in the hands of the school community.

“First and foremost in all decisions made is the best interest of the students.”

Parents who talked to Western News last week about the plan to remove the trees were divided.

“I’m fine with that. They’re planning to put a court there. It’s for the children,” said Jex.

“It looks good, what they’re planning on doing,” said Nicole.

Junghyun said he would be sad to see historic trees go.

Emily said that as the trees were expected to live another 15-25 years according to the arborist report, they were likely to outlive the proposed synthetic court.

“It’s just a really bad message to send to kids, with the climate crisis, that it’s okay to chop down 10 large trees.”