Residents hacked off by illegal tree felling in Westville

DOZENS of Westville residents have signed a petition after a number of indigenous trees were illegally chopped down in a park at the Westville Civic Centre, along the west boundary.

According to a local resident and a regular user of the paths, Rod Mc Donald, the trees were allegedly removed after hours. Mc Donald referred to the hack job as a ‘sneaky move’.

“For a start, it is totally illegal what has been done. By whatever means were used, they cannot be taken down as they were not on anyone’s property. The trees belong to the park. It is a disgrace. It is what people are doing these days, taking the law into their own hands. We don’t want this to ever happen again in this park,” he said.

Many of the trees that were cut down were donated by, and planted in memory of, Westville Conservancy members. The trees were planted for the benefit of park users to form an aesthetic and ecological barrier between the park and the adjacent buildings and to improve the park’s biodiversity.

It was noted that the trees were strategically placed along the park’s boundary at a legal distance that was between 1m and 2m in an effort to replace the invasive species.

ALSO READ: Ashley Road residents call for road repairs

“Some of the trees were planted more than six years ago and one of the trees could be seen with five different species of sunbirds sitting in it. This park is full of birds and, with the trees removed, all you can see is wall and wire,” said Mc Donald. “The park is already completely fenced off and there is no threat in this park. From start to finish, it is all so wrong.”

He noted that when the lockdown eased last year, he would spend hours of his time cleaning up and weeding in the park.

“I am not the only one who comes here of their own volition to clean up the park and keep it in to condition for other dog walkers, birders and nature lovers,” he said. “This is an affront to us and an act of reckless vandalism. This is a pure disregard of our time, effort and contributions. It’s going to take years for them to grow again and what then? Will they just be chopped down again?”

The chairman of the Westville Conservancy, Jean Senogles, said the non-profit organisation was not consulted with in regards to the removal of the trees on the municipal property.

The eThekwini Municipality did not respond by the time of going to print.

Do you want to receive alerts regarding this and other Highway community news via Telegram? Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409. You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts. Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.