Penola locals are fighting to save some trees that are planned to be removed.
Almost 30 people have signed a petition to object to the proposed removal of trees in Clarke Street, which was due to begin this week.
Lead petitioner Jodi Strother said the concern was not about the trees themselves, but the view of the industrial estate that will be left if they are removed.
“My concern is the industrial estate behind the trees, which is very ugly,” she said.
“There are some beautiful deciduous trees just behind them, and the cypress trees do need a clean up, if not removal, it’s not about that.
“It’s about the fact that the council seem to be good at removing things, but don’t always put something back there.
“There’s been proposals about beautifying the area, but I am concerned because they have run out of money to complete the rail trail, because of other issues in the construction of it, so what’s the first thing that’s going go, will it be the beautification of that area or will it be the removal of the trees?
“I am concerned that they will remove them but there will be nothing put back there.”
She said the industrial estate will be visible to the residents in the vicinity as well of tourists and locals using the Rail Trail.
Even some councillors have fought against the proposal to remove the trees, with Riddoch ward councillor councillor Dean Burrow trying in May to move a motion that the council rescind its previous motion to remove them but his motion failed.
Community consultation regarding the future of the trees was held earlier this year, with six written responses received from residents, and additional comments on social media.
Eight of these responses were against the removal of the trees and six were in favour.
Although there was community consultation, Ms Strother said it was not sufficient, and did not believe it had been fully considered.
“There was, during the consultation process, some community feedback given but none of those people have received any acknowledgement to their submissions,” she said.
“Someone put a post on the Penola News Facebook page and there were a lot of people talking about the consultation and no one had any awareness of it.
“A lot of this seemed to have happened while we were in and out of lockdowns, we didn’t have a local paper and people just weren’t aware of what was going on.
“People have come reeling out of lockdowns and it’s gone through council without any consideration of the community feedback being taken.”
