Nelson Mandela Bay residents are outraged by the municipality’s decision to chop down more than 50 palm trees along Allister Miller Drive, saying they helped beautify the corridor to the Chief Dawid Stuurman Airport.
Our sister publication Weekend Post reported on Saturday that an audit by the airport had revealed that the trees were visually obstructing pilots during runway landings.
Airport manager Claudia Daniels said the recommendation to cut down the trees was based on the SA Civil Aviation Authority’s standards.
According to the standards, a World Geodetic System Survey must be conducted each year from which a report is made on all obstacles affecting the approach slope of an aircraft.
“The trees in question penetrated a 2% slope of the aircraft approaching runway 17 and were deemed a potential safety hazard for aircraft on final approach for the runway,” Daniels said.
“Noncompliance with the audit findings would have far-reaching implications for the operating licence of the airport, potentially resulting in a downgrade of the airport or even a cessation of commercial operations.”
The 56 trees along Allister Miller Drive and others planted along roads in Walmer and South End were an initiative of former mayor Nceba Faku to improve the area’s aesthetic appeal ahead of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by SA, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
It cost the city R4m at the time.
Though the airport plans to plant a new species of plants along the roads, the problem is the lack of public consultation on this issue.
Ward 2 councillor Renaldo Gouws has questioned why the public was not informed that the project was going ahead.
He argued that taxpayers’ money was used to pay for the trees and better solutions could have been sought, such as offering residents the opportunity to take a tree, instead of hacking them down.
Gouws raises a valid point — it is the lack of notice to the public that is problematic.
It goes without saying that if the trees were obstructing the view of pilots during landings, and if, as a consequence, the airport could be downgraded, they had to be removed.
But not informing the public first, or even offering people the opportunity to take some of the trees — which cost a considerable amount of money — is where the problem lies.
HeraldLIVE