The first stage of a green makeover for New Plymouth city centre gets underway today, with a pilot project to remove Devon Street’s ageing alder trees.
Around 22 of the oldest and most at-risk trees will be removed between Egmont and Elliot streets to be replaced with a mix of shade trees and street-level greenery.
The first group of 13 alders between Brougham and Robe streets will come down this month and the other eight between Egmont and Eliot streets will be removed in autumn next year.
“This is part of our City Centre Strategy vision for a greener, family-friendly city centre where people want to shop, stop and enjoy. This will cause some brief disruption to traffic as we need to keep people and property safe, but the footpaths will remain open and we’d ask people to bear with us while we carry out this work,” said New Plymouth District Council Manager Parks and Open Spaces, Conrad Pattison.
“We’ll be replacing the trees with natives and if they’re a success over the next six months, we’ll be looking to roll them out along the length of Devon Street in the city centre.
“Our city centre is the business, cultural and social hub of our district and the strategy is a partnership between NPDC and Ngāti Te Whiti hapū to keep it thriving for residents, jobs and businesses,” he said.
The work to remove the first group of trees is expected to be completed by 2 May and the new planting will take place later in May.
