Eight City Trees Felled Under Part 3A Power
November 5th, 2009
The removal of eight healthy mature city street trees by Energy Australia is the latest environmental disaster perpetrated under the Department of Planning’s Part 3A madness. It is also at odds with Energy Australia’s policy statement that it is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its operations.
The Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, gave approval for the removal of the trees after the City of Sydney Council refused the application by Energy Australia. The felling of the trees was sought to accommodate a new zone substation in Hay Street, near Belmore Park. Energy Australia couldn’t get agreement from the City of Sydney so they ran off to the Minister for Planning who used her much discredited Part 3A powers to allow the trees to be destroyed.
Energy Australia would not work with the council to come up with a creative solution to save the trees but rather relied on their statutory powers to have their way. It is sheer bloody mindedness.
On the one hand we have the City putting in trees at the rate of around 1500 per year in order to increase the tree canopy of the city and reduce its heat sink effect and on the other we have Energy Australia acting wilfully like an environmental vandal.
The refusal by Energy Australia to amend the design for the substation to save the trees, goes against its promotional statements that it is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its operations. In a general promotional letter I received recently, Energy Australia was extolling the virtues of its own environmentally-friendly operations and encouraging its customers to reduce their own environmental impact.
See evidence of Energy Australia’s hypocrisy in the letter below, particularly the first sentence of paragraph three.
