Inner West Council mayor adjourns meeting as tree policy tensions boil over
Debate about an inner west tree policy has quickly descended into personal attacks at a council meeting, with both councillors and residents in the firing line.
Inner West
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A council debate over a controversial tree policy turned nasty when councillors started hurling personal insults at each other.
Inner West Council thrashed out the policy over about five-hours on Tuesday night following a month-long online war of words.
At one stage Mayor Darcy Byrne adjourned the meeting as insults began to fly between Greens Cr Louise Steer and Independent Cr Victor Macri.
It was all over a policy, approved at a council meeting on August 27, allowing residents to prune or remove trees within 3m of a residential structure without council approval.
After hours of heated debate council voted to amend the policy to 2m and put it back out on public consultation.
The Greens had dubbed the policy a “tree massacre”.
Tensions flared when Cr Steer waved 2457 signatures “from citizens of the inner west”, objecting to the policy.
Cr Macri, who supports the policy, made his thoughts on the matter known.
“They’re not from the inner west. Look at their addresses Cr Steer, can you read. Forbes, Sydney … Drummoyne, Mortlake. That’s not the inner west.”
At which point Cr Steer made reference to Cr Macri’s Belmore address.
“Neither are you,” Cr Steer said.
This was the second attack of the night on Cr Macri’s address.
With the insults beginning to fire, Mayor Darcy Byrne called an adjournment.
But that didn’t calm the heighened emotions.
“I was born in Camperdown, you can’t say that,” Cr Steer told Cr Macri.
She added: “You said you couldn’t speak English (when you were a child).”
Cr Macri asked, “Do you want to see my birth certificate?”
To which she replied: “Yes, I do.”
It was not the only flashpoint of the debate. Earlier, Liberal Cr Julie Passas yelled at a registered speaker who was speaking out against the new tree policy.
She suggested the speaker was not being truthful.
This long, fiery debate was over amendments to the tree policy put forward in the August council meeting.
The procedure of the last-minute changes to the tree management policy, offered by Cr Macri last month and given the nod by council, may have breached certain council protocols.
“The changes were so extensive and they amended the policy (so much) compared to public exhibition, we would be in breach of obligations in the local government act — in terms of communication with the public, transparency, decision making,” independent Cr Pauline Lockie said.
As well as decreasing the distance from 3m to 2m, the new plan also states that this distance will be determined in relation to a primary dwelling, not a shed or a swimming pool.
A large number of tree applications will move from a development application to a permit system.
The entire amended plan will now go on public exhibition for a second time.
Cr Lockie, who voted against the original tree management plan, said the new policy still “doesn’t go far enough”.
Council officers originally advised a distance of 0.5m from a “principal structure”.
“A 3m rule, a 2m rule, even a 1m rule means the risk of losing mature, healthy trees will be too great,” she said.
“The canopy coverage of 18 per cent in the inner west is well below the 40 per cent target. “The inner west is a densely populated area, we’re reliant on private land for tree canopy coverage,” Cr Lockie said.
“This will have a really long-term impact on our community. If we get it wrong it will take years to fix it.”
At the council meeting, a number of speakers spoke passionately on both sides of the tree removal debate.
“Council has received lots of feedback about our tree policy expressing two very strong and legitimate views – that replacing dangerous and inappropriate trees must be made easier and less costly for residents – and that overall tree canopy must be expanded.”
“This policy will achieve both of those important objectives.”
In two separate motions last night, the council also voted to increase the tree canopy in the inner west.
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