Sharon Webb

TASMANIA’S PLANNING authority has told Westbury neighbours warring over historic trees to build a fence and ordered Meander Valley Council to reverse its rejection of one of the neighbours’ planning application.

In August last year Robert Gray decided to rid himself of tree branches overhanging the boundary between his 34 Marriott Street property and Fitzpatrick’s Inn.

He called in HST tree specialists to take advantage of a Heritage Tasmania blunder in accidentally not listing the 150 year old trees, labelling his action as ‘for safety reasons’.

Police said they could do nothing and Mrs Swain was in tears as the sound of three chainsaws reverberated at the end of her garden for about seven hours.

At the time she said, ‘I’m passionate about sharing and protecting the history of this building and its gardens while I’m here’, she said.

‘I think there’s no retrieval from here. Taking off the limbs from one side of the trees will make them dangerous so they will have to come down. That will be at my cost because they are on my land.’

Meander Valley Council refused Mr Gray’s application to subdivide his property to build units at Marriott Street and Mr Gray appealed to the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal (RMPAT), which set aside the council’s decision and granted the subdivision subject to conditions. But it did not mention the chainsawed trees in its decision.

A 1.8m high timber paling fence must be erected, at the expense of both property owners, along the boundary between the new units Mr Gray intends to build and Fitzpatrick’s Inn.

If the fence intersects the trunk of an existing tree and/ or involves excavation within the tree protection zone of an existing tree, a qualified arborist must supervise fence construction so as to avoid irreparable tree damage.

The fence design and construction method must be approved by Meander Valley Council’s town planner and installed in accordance with the approved design and construction method.

In addition, an agreement must be registered providing for the hedge fronting Meander Valley Road and Marriott Street to remain intact, maintaining a minimum height of 1.5m to ensure longterm survival.

The hedge must not be removed or destroyed without the written consent of the council.

All costs associated with preparing and registering the agreement must be borne by Mr Gray and his wife Leeanne.

When councillors discussed Mr Gray’s planning application, they heard neither property owner knew exactly where the boundary was.

That problem was also resolved in the RMPAT negotiations, with the two owners agreeing on a boundary.

The trees are now listed with the Heritage Tasmania.

In its decision, RMPAT referred Mr Gray to the Australian Standard AS4970 Protection of Trees on Development Sites.

But it is believed that Meander Valley Council’s planning scheme does not recognise that standard.

Meander Valley Council’s general manager John Jordan did not reply to questions about whether the incoming planning scheme would recognise it.

RMPAT ordered the three parties to pay their own costs of the appeal.