TREES may be coming down at Calare Public School, but a resident says the gum trees outside the school boundaries are just as dangerous.
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Burreburry Crescent resident Philip Hodges said arborists had started work at the school in recent days to remove gums deemed risky to students after Pitt Town Public School student Bridget Wright was killed by a falling branch earlier this year.
However, he said attempts to gain Orange City Council approval to remove gums in his street have not been heeded so quickly.
“They’ve cut off the dead wood, but they’ve said don’t worry about it,” he said.
Mr Hodges said the six trees had been known to drop branches in high winds.
“A couple of months ago, a huge limb fell off the tree across the road and it was a foot round,” he said.
“It just seems ridiculous to save the schoolchildren from being hit when parents park on this street to pick them up and the council won’t let us cut our trees down.”
Mr Hodges agreed trees were iconic to Orange and said he would support a replanting of a different species if the gums were removed.
“Gums are just not the right trees for a residential area,” he said.
Orange City Council corporate and community relations manager Nick Redmond said the council’s approach to assessing the potential risk from trees was very similar to the Department of Education and Communities.
“In recent months, school authorities have employed arborists to assess the health of individual trees in their school playgrounds and where problems have been found, trees have been pruned or removed,” he said.
“Whenever a resident expresses concern about a street tree in Orange, the health of the tree is assessed by a qualified arborist.
“If problems are found, action is taken. If a tree is healthy, it is not removed.”
Mr Redmond said some time had passed since complaints from Burreburry Crescent residents, but the trees were found to be healthy during the most recent inspection.
“In this case, if the resident wants to contact the council directly with details of the location of the trees, the trees will be inspected again,” he said.
danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au