A row of trees nearly turned a Dunedin playground into a battleground yesterday.
Two of the original five trees between the park and Caversham Bowling Club were cut down last month, when locals also objected to their removal.
''We've had a neighbour on 'tree watch' since last month, who rang me as soon as she heard the chain saws,'' Kew resident Lyndon Weggery said yesterday.
''When I got there at 8.30am they had already started, so I asked them politely to stop and they did.''
He was joined at the scene by local residents Jim Milne and Karen Anderson.
''It's pretty disappointing when the first indication you get that something's happening is the chain saws starting up. They didn't tell us anything,'' Mr Milne said.
The arborists had an early smoko for an hour before DCC parks officer Richard McAlevey arrived on site at 10.20am and, after briefly talking to the residents, ordered the arborists to continue work.
''I'm absolutely shocked at this decision. It's the worst case of vandalism I've come across in all my years dealing with the DCC,'' Mr Weggery said.
''It's about community consultation. The information the council is going off to justify their removal is from a 1998 arborist's report.''
However, the removal of the trees was welcomed yesterday by the Caversham Bowling Club, which has been overshadowed by them for the past 15 years.
''The trees shade the green all year round. It's been a big problem for a long time,'' green keeper Lyndon Broadley said.
''In mid-winter, half the green is in shade. There's a six-degree temperature difference between one end and the other.''
DCC parks manager Lisa Wheeler said the council was duty-bound to complete the process it had started 15 years earlier.
''We were following up on the development plan that was agreed upon after public consultation in 1998,'' she said.
''The decision went through council and those trees should have been long gone by now.
''The bowling club have been very patient.
''We're going to make it a clean site and then comprehensively replant the area with natives within the month or, hopefully, even the next fortnight.''
