A tale of old trees which matter to a small community

Some of the people who opposed the removal of landmark camphor laurel trees from McLachlan Park.

Photo from the Independent

The Daily Examiner 1 May 2015:

Majority view

Mayor Williamson and the councillors who failed to support the motion to save the trees should never be voted into office again.

They have blatantly ignored the wishes of a significant number - possibly a majority - of residents simply so the mayor can push through his plan for McLachlan Park, a plan which, according to him, will be "magnificent".

The mayor wouldn't know magnificence if he tripped over it as clearly neither he does not consider giant 100-year-old trees to fall under the definition of "magnificent".

According to figures available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics from the last national census "... the population of Maclean in 2011 was 2612, living in 1202 dwellings with an average household size of 2.25."

Let's allow for growth over the past four years, be generous and round that up to a population of 3000 for 2015.

To quote from your article (by Tim Howard) in Tuesday's edition of the Daily Examiner: "Councillor Williamson is not convinced the group of protestors [1500 signatures on a petition to save the trees] reflects the view of the whole of Maclean....."

So, Mr. Mayor, let's do the mathematics:

Population = 3000

Of that total it would be safe to assume, based on the figure of 2.25 per household, that at least a third would be of voting age, i.e. 1000 ratepayers.

Number of signatures on the petition to not destroy the camphor laurels = 1500.

One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to see that the response to the petition certainly DOES reflect the view of the whole of Maclean.

In addition to the above, if our esteemed mayor wishes to spend ratepayers' money on the removal of noxious weeds why not follow up on information I supplied to the Invasive Species Officer in Grafton last June regarding a prickly pear infestation in Orion Drive, Yamba?

This information was passed on to the council (who handle the actual eradication) and, over a month later, they sent someone who poisoned one, ONE, of the more than dozen plants I reported. All the others are still there and thriving.

The sooner a new council is elected the better.

Bruce Kennewell

Yamba