Anyone successfully challenged Council regarding removal of trees

Just got DA approval for our ppor built. But Council wants us to retain 6 trees - We don’t like to have that many trees - nightmare with fallen leaves...
Has anyone successfully challenged Council decision?? What is the procedure? Who is responsible if property get damaged by fallen trees ect??
Our lot is only 800sqm in outer fringe, trees are non significant to be honest- gum trees

 

Maybe not to you but the birds, possums, bats & your dog may miss them.

 

Have you had an arborist check them?

 

Yes it was a mandatory and expensive ($3400) report

 

Is it possible to remove the 6 larger trees and plant 6 smaller trees to your liking, reducing the impact of falling leaves. Council may accept this as a viable option.
You won't know unless you ask.

 

Native animals, insects and birds need native trees. How big are the trees?

 

Our land got 30 plus trees (gum trees)- it is a new development area (H&L packages), almost all are characterless houses with no trees. Not sure why council wants to retain 6 trees in our block only...
Most are gum trees, 40 plus years old, 8 metres tall

 

OP stated they were Gum trees, so I feel they must be quite large if they see them as a potential problem.

 

I had a tree in a really awkward location in the garden I had to retain one time for one of my devs. Council wouldn't let me cut it down. I don't know what happened to the tree but by the end of the construction I just couldn't seem to locate it any more.

 

Gum trees are fine in the right place - in the bush. In the suburbs they drop branches on house rooves and cars AND people. They don’t get called “widow-makers” for no reason. Every time there is a storm and a tree comes down and takes out powerlines, you can bet your firstborn it will be a gum tree

I dunno but I’m with @Sackie. I’ve seen gum trees in inappropriate locations suffer some terrible diseases, the main one being chainsawitis.

 

Wouldn’t want to do that in our street in Brisbane!!!!

Each block is covered by a VPO. For us, $80,000 fine without BCC approval.

I have requested approval to have trees removed a number of times. On two occasions, they rejected my application. I objected to their rejection .

One was a safety issue (gum tree wasn’t in good health and our concern was that it could fall on our main living areas, pool, ...). The other was that the tree was shading our solar panels and increasing our carbon footprint (I kid you not). Both objections were eventually overturned but it took time, hard work, persistence, innovation, ...

I feel one’s success with objections with application rejections will be dependent on which Council one is dealing with but I don’t believe any Council will accept “nightmare with fallen leaves” as a valid reason to approve one’s application .

 

I’m surprised the OP bought a block with trees if they didn’t want trees! Why not just buy a bare block?

Gums shouldn’t drop a lot of leaves at once (unlike plane trees) - however the one by my house does drop small bark strips.

 

You spend that a week on fine booz, fine dining and fine women. Chump change for you.

 

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Did you have to change the design because of the trees, or were the trees in an area of the site that was not impacted by the development?

 

Yes successfully challenged Council and removed 3 large trees.

Got my town planner involved in this process, we had from memory 3 arborist reports.

But the only reason we were successful was because of the condition of the trees which we were able to prove were poor and a danger.
I am talking 150 year old oak trees.

 

did you cop a fine ?

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...g-down-neighbour-s-trees-20180831-p500y9.html

 

No I'm a tree lover and would never cut down trees I'm not allowed. I'm still looking for it till this day. Just disappeared. A mystery.

 

Just come to realise that it was not Council. It was our builder's sloppy submission without consulting us and Council just stamped it

 

Use some of this on the grass around the trees

GRAZON EXTRA HERBICIDE

Conversely use lots of super phosphate as a lot of native trees do not tolerate high phosphate levels.

They won't be gone for your development but withing a year they should all be very unhealthy and really you just tried to grow your lawn.

 

could you do that with newcastle council??