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RNZ News
30-06-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Destruction of 100-year-old pōhutukawa 'a travesty'
Ballance Street resident Kirsty Porter gives the remnants of the century old pōhutukawa a hug. It should not have been cut down, she and other New Plymouth residents say. Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin An award-winning landscape designer has weighed into a stoush over the felling of a 100-year-old pōhutukawa to clear it from powerlines in New Plymouth. Michael Mansvelt says the multi-trunk tree could have been managed and kept, but has instead been sacrificed, part of a pattern he believes is being repeated across a city famed for its gardens. Award-winning designer Michael Mansvelt says the destruction of a 100-year-old pōhutukawa tree in New Plymouth is 'a travesty'. Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin The chainsaws of Powerco contractors came for the 15-metre high pōhutukawa on Ballance Street during last week's downpour. The tree had fallen victim to a dispute over who was responsible for maintaining it - the homeowner - whose berm it was growing on - or the council. The overgrown pōhutukawa tree being removed. Photo: RNZ/Robin Martin Michael Mansvelt - who had been in the design business for three decades and was the author of several books - was gutted at its demise. "It's really sad. I feel really frustrated. We're a garden city. We are known all around the world for excellence in horticulture. People come here to enjoy Taranaki and New Plymouth Ngāmotu especially for our gardens, and the fact that this tree is gone is a travesty and it didn't need to happen." He believed the pōhutukawa could have been made safe without destroying it. "These trees are metrosideros is the name which means ironwood. In Cyclone Bola, when I was a very young gardener it was the pōhutukawa and Norfolk pines that weren't affected. "We know that selective pruning could've easily removed branches that were anywhere near the powerlines. I note two or three limbs that could've been removed very easily without destroying the canopy." Mansvelt says the selective pruning of pūriri trees near the pōhutukawa was an example of good arbory practice. Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin Mansvelt said it was ironic that pūriri trees lining neighbouring Selwyn Street just a few metres away had been selectively trimmed to keep them out of powerlines. "This one of our only tree-lined streets here in New Plymouth and we've got some beautiful pūriri here, but they've been limbed really effectively, they've been limbed away from the power line, so anything that was approaching the power lines has been cut off right at the base and that means it won't grow back. This is what we would call in the industry good horticultural or good arbory practice." Trees are frequently trimmed to keep them away from powerlines, without needing to take down the whole tree, Mansvelt says. Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin Alana Brough, who was quoted $10,000 to have the pōhutukawa trimmed, owns the Ballance Street property. The daughter of district councillor and mayoral aspirant Max Brough, she said the tree was on council land - but the NPDC would concede it straddled the public land and her property. Alana Brough had been battling the council over the giant pōhutukawa. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Brough would have preferred a more aesthetically pleasing outcome. "I think it could've been sculptured and made a little bit smaller so it wasn't posing a risk to the power lines, but the fact the council wanted nothing to do with it meant it was really hard to come to a mutual resolution, so Powerco have then come in and done what they think is right, that doesn't mean to say that suits everyone's opinion as we're finding out." Brough said it was unclear if Powerco contractors would return to remove "the ugly stump", but if they didn't it would soon start to sprout again and at that point it could be maintained into a safer tree. Kirsty Porter lived across the road where she had a view from her living room of the tree her children had grown up playing in. She was not happy. Ballance Street resident Kirsty Porter's children grew up playing in the pōhutukawa. Photo: Supplied/ Kirsty Porter "I was shocked that was happening, that the entire tree was coming down rather than being trimmed. But here we are," Porter said. "It happened on the worst weather day in New Plymouth, which was also a surprise given that one of the reasons given ... was a safety issue with the tree. "I was grateful for the heavens actually, because I think they were proving a point that the tree shouldn't have been cut down completely." Mansvelt said there had to be a better way. "Looking at this case I feel that everybody could've compromised a bit more. I feel like there should be room for negotiation and there should be room for a discussion. "The council have admitted it was a grey area, it was questionably on their land, but just to carte blanche cut a tree down just makes no real sense. This is a 100-year-old tree." The stump of the pōhutukawa tree. Photo: RNZ/Robin Martin In a statement, New Plymouth District Council parks and open spaces manager Conrad Pattison was adamant that the council - with 3000 street trees and countless specimen trees in parks, reserves and on other land it administers - was not responsible for the Ballance Street pōhutukawa. "We didn't plant the tree, nor did we seek its removal. As it is primarily on private land and is not protected, the landowner can have it removed at their own cost." Meanwhile, Powerco said trees caused one in five power cuts on its electricity network each year. "Overgrown trees interfere with power lines and make it difficult for our crews to restore power, also in high winds and storms, branches blowing into power lines cause power outages." The lines company said tree owners were responsible for maintaining their trees and when a tree posed an immediate danger, Powerco must have consent from the tree owner to undertake mitigative action. "Trees that have a history of interrupting power supply and pose an ongoing risk to the network that have not [been] maintained according to tree owner obligations are assessed on a case-by-case basis. Tree owner consent to undertake mitigative actions is still required. "Regarding the pōhutukawa on Ballance Street, the decision to remove the tree was based on the balance of risk and impact to the electricity network." Powerco said through its Replant for Tomorrow initiative, it had an ongoing commitment to supporting native tree planting in communities on its network. "Last year, more than 18,000 trees were planted to help offset the trees that were removed from around the network that were growing too close to the power lines.". 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RNZ News
04-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
This year's Te Matatini biggest yet
Photo: Te Matatini Enterprises A new impact evaluation report on this year's Te Matatini shows that the 2025 festival was the biggest to date. The report showed that Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga held in February in Ngāmotu New Plymouth, brought just under $24 million into Taranaki - $3 million less than forecasted but still the highest contribution from a festival to date. Tane Morgan is a director of New Plymouth based Proof & Stock Coffee which had a stall at Te Matatini. Over the festivals five days they sold 100kgs worth of coffee, he said. At WOMAD - the only festival in the region of a comparable size - Proof & Stock might go through 35kgs over three days, he said. Morgan said unlike WOMAD or a concert Te Matatini had a "peaceful flow about it". "The fact that no one was drinking and it had like this unique flow about it, everybody was taking their time there was a lot of courtesy... you could just feel it." Morgan said the festival certainly had an impact of the local economy in Taranaki - especially for hotels and camp grounds - but the impact was relative to what you were selling. Cafe's and restaurants in the city center might not have seen the same return on their investment, he said. "I don't think that the cafe's really benefited from it, but if you were at Te Matatini and you were a vendor or stall holder you would have seen good margins, that's the consensus that the town was kind of saying. "A lot of the businesses here were ready for the influx but they didn't quite see a return on their investment in terms of people out wining and dining." As well as their stall at Te Matatini Proof & Stock also has a coffee shop in New Plymouth, which Morgan said was quieter than during the festival. But Morgan said his team had an amazing time at the festival. His staff included included some local students learning on the job. "They walked out with a pocket full of cash and all this confidence they can use into the future," he said. Kiri Erb said this catering gig is the biggest undertaking of her career. Photo: RNZ / Emma Andrews Hāwera-based Kiri Erb owns and operates Tika Cafe and Catering and worked providing kai for the festival and for the competitors who were based out of Hāwera. She told RNZ being awarded a kai stall was both a privilege and a challenge. The scale of the event meant she had to boost the her staffing numbers from 32 to 50 so the business could accommodate the masses at the Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth and the restaurant in Hāwera. Erb said it was an experience her and the team will never forget. "This is an experience that will live in memory banks forever. We've taken videos of us working during that week, we had rōpu that would come in and they would perform for us... and we'd go back an look at those. Our hearts still really sing." "We all just feel incredibly lucky." Erb said. Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross said the iwi of Taranaki had done a fantastic job catering for a growing festival. "The Matatini brand internationally has just got so big now, [its] becoming an economic powerhouse for our country, how do we actually utilise what we have now to be able to provide the Matatini festival in the best condition that we can do." There has also been an increased interest in kapa haka among non-Māori, 44 percent of attendees in 2025 were Pākehā up from an average of 27 percent over the last decade of festivals. Ross said over the years he has noticed more and more people from diverse communities wanting to share the Matatini experience. Of the $24m brought into the region more than $2m came from teams traveling to Taranaki to compete and another $17.4m was spent by their supporters. It's getting more and more expensive to send a team to Te Matatini and some regions don't have that kind of money to spend, Ross said. "We could have up to $160,000 to move a single team into a rohe and that's with just three supporters per kaihaka (performer)." Te Matatini now is looking to the future and ensure the festival can be enjoyed by everybody, he said. "Te Matatini and our Board are still in discussion's on how we can also ensure that we can meet the needs of our smaller rohe, because that's a question that was burning straight after the festival. Did we have our infrastructure in place to be able to try and do this in the next two years?" Te Matatini announced in May that the next festival in 2027 would not be hosted in Te Tauihu o te Waka-a-Māui/Nelson as had been expected and that they were looking for expressions of interest to host. Ross was hopeful that there will be an update on where Te Matatini goes next by the end of June. "[Te Matatini] supports the economy, the local economy and that's what is really cool about being able to travel to different rohe, being able to do that it's getting harder at the moment for sponsorships, we only got half the sponsorship that we usually get and it goes to show the economic environment [we're] currently working in, so I know it's hard out there and it's hard for our people."
