Legal action threatened over Lords Place overhaul as petition to stop work circulates

The document alleges council failed to inform tenants of its plans, and questions how contractors were secured between 9pm Tuesday - when the plan was approved - and 5am on Wednesday.

"The trees council is proposing to destroy this evening are the flashpoint but not the focus. It is the lack of consultation combined with the detrimental affected it will have on many businesses," it says.

"We put council on notice that we, together with our neighbours, are considering our next legal steps in this matter. Any further works ... be be done so with notice of our intention."

The petition - attached below for reference - was sent to council staff early Wednesday. It carries signatures from 44 residents, and representatives for the following 16 businesses:

Hogs Breath, Cute-icles, Movement Evolution, Botanica Flora, Parlour, Snap Fitness, Starchem Pharmacy, Blowes, Good Eddy, Umi-Bo, Alfios, Aidacare, RIS, R&H, and Mane.

It's so far unclear if council has responded. A statement contesting many of the allegations made by business owners was supplied to the CWD just after 4pm, Wednesday.

The controversial street overhaul was not greenlit until Tuesday night. Workers began marking tarmac at 5am Wednesday morning, and said trees would be torn out that day.

At the time of publishing, all trees are still standing. A team of about eight workers have fenced off the relevant areas with scaffolding and orange bollards.

"[Council] doesn't care ... They've made up their mind," Salvo Sciuto from Alfios Pizzeria told the CWD. "There's no transparency ... it's a lot of smoke and mirrors."

"They said someone would come to talk to us. Well I've been here from 8:30am ... not one person in the last week has come here."

Good Eddy owner Maddy Howell said: "We didn't realise it'd be approved at 9pm, and work would begin at 5am with no consultation. The last email said someone would contact us.

"Obviously they haven't had the time to do that, even though they had the time to have the trees cut down ... no one said at all those trees would not come down (on Wednesday).

"I feel we knew [removal of the] tree was ultimately on the concept plan ... but it's a concept plan, so we thought there would be some leeway there and the chance to have our say. There's been no time."

Kirsty Evans from Cheney Suthers Lawyers said: "The report had an air about it that it was always going to be approved. It looks and smells like it was all pre-planned.

"Generally when you're a business in the vicinity you should be consulted because you're the ones that are going to be impacted.

"They've always said works will commence in the next three months. That would normally allow us to lodge an appeal, but by removing the trees instantaneously that shortens the period."

Sally Dowling from Parlour O said: "It's unbelievable the approval only went thorough last night and they can start work today ... There must have been a decision already made."

"I think it's just so disappointing. There's so many people and businesses upset. They're 30-year-old trees and they can just come in with no notice and pull them down.

"I don't think it's the right way to do it ... that's not an upfront way of doing it. The last thing I thought is they'd be pulling the trees down today."

A statement from council said, in part: "Council is working to a tight deadline to complete the first stage of the Lords Place South upgrade by the 1st of December.

"There are currently 16 trees in the street. Ten will be removed. Six will be retained. Twenty-two new trees will be planted. There are two species to be planted. Red Ash and a Field Maple.

"Business owners in Lords Place were notified in an email on Monday morning that work would begin on Wednesday, if the plans were approved by Council on Tuesday night.

"Another email was sent today to business operators with more details of the timetable for the project. The trees will be removed by Council staff."

The CWD, as a business on Lords Place, received emails from council in regards to the Lords Place South upgrade, and the first mention of trees being removed was the email received on Wednesday, October 19 at 2.35pm.

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