The Canberra Times triumphantly reported today that the NCA has abandoned plans to cut down 80 or so poplar trees between the National Library and Lake Burley Griffin.
About a month ago the paper reported the NCA had released plans to redevelop the area linking the National Library and Questacon, which included the felling of the long-established trees.
Although I had heard nothing about it since, apparently the public response was “vehement”, leading the NCA to its decision to leave the trees alone. The CT reports this decision has been welcomed by heritage and tree experts.
One of these, a heritage officer with the National Trust, Peter Dowling, said the lack of full consultation by the NCA with the public about the plans had been their main concern. He said the NCA should work out some better ways of letting the public know about their plans rather than just bunging things up on their website and then saying “well, you had the opportunity to look at it”.
The ABC says that despite the NCA having dropped the planned design, the future of the poplar trees is still in doubt, quoting NCA chief Anabelle Pegrum as saying, “We will do our best to consider the poplars in particular in that scenario but we’re going to have weigh up a number of considerations in this.”
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