Wodonga Council reaffirms plan to remove tennis centre pine trees

Councillors pointed to the city planting thousands of trees annually and the pines being an environmental weed, ahead of a 4-1 vote affirming a previous decision to remove the trees.

Former deputy mayor Graeme Simpfendorfer was the naysayer, expressing concern at the cost to remove the trees along Lawrence Street.

The meeting on Monday September 18 heard the estimated expense is $22,500, including traffic management costs.

The trees, which have an annual $5000 clean-up bill, are due to be cut down in the last week of September.

Councillor Danny Chamberlain noted the pines were non-natives and there had been no petitions when hundreds of Indigenous trees were removed to allow for the Baranduda Fields sporting complex.

"This council plants somewhere around 2000 trees a year, this is 18," Cr Chamberlain said.

Councillor Libby Hall said she was "not keen" on pulling out trees, before highlighting the ecological harm of radiata pines.

"They're actually considered weeds by environmental standards," Cr Hall said.

"You'll find the yellow-tailed cockatoos who frequent these trees from time to time will eat radiata pine cone nuts, but in doing so they spread the seeds which can become weed issues elsewhere."

Mayor Ron Mildren stressed the dangers posed by falling cones.

"There is a long history of the pine trees causing trouble," Cr Mildren said.

"There is also an increasing risk and potential liability to the council from debris from the pine trees, particularly in the road reserve and particularly with cars throwing pine cones up...or even people on bikes or pedestrians being hit by cones thrown up by cars."

Councillor Danny Lowe said the uprooting of the trees had been raised in 2019 as part of broader Lawrence Street roadworks with funds eventually flowing into a new bridge further east.

The Wodonga Tennis Club has lobbied for years for the trees to be axed, with its curator spending up to three hours each morning removing cones, needles and chips from courts.

Cockatoos drawn to the trees have destroyed five tennis nets by eating through webbing as well as damaging the grass surface of courts.

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