City Parks unhappy with tree removal in Beaulieu

The Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) expressed disappointment after 34 trees were chopped down along Percheron Road in Beaulieu.

There is currently a project taking place on the road to instal a sewage line between Crowthorne and Kyalami. Region A manager of JCPZ Jospeh Ndou said, “We made contact with the contractor late last year when we were alerted about the sewer line. We let them know that they will not be able to remove any trees along the road… The contractor said that they diverge around the trees and only three trees will be affected.”

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Ndou said that an invoice for the three trees to be taken down were sent to the contractor late last year.

Upon a follow-up inspection in early March, Ndou said, “It seems that they didn’t keep to their promise and they removed more trees than what was promised.”

He added that the entity discovered that the contractor on the road removed 34 medium-sized trees. “It’s really a tragedy because this is actually deforestation in our area. We do a lot of work to look after the trees in Region A and this development has undone a lot of the work… It’s very sad from our side.”

“Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo understand that we can’t stop development but we have to respect the green canopy that we create in these areas.”

The contractor Leogems Property said in a statement, “We were invoiced for three trees by City Parks and we are in the process of paying for the trees.”

Leogem, however, did not address the additional 31 trees that were taken down.

Ndou added that Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo are in the process of invoicing the contractor for the additional trees that were taken down while also pushing for the payment of the first three trees that were taken down.

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