By Dominique Tassell
Locals have raised questions about Southern Downs Regional Council’s plans for the Warwick streetscape after white spots appeared on trees up and down Palmerin Street.
Locals have expressed concern about whether this means the trees in question are set to be removed from the CBD, and if so whether this is due to disease or other reasons.
Questions have also been raised about how this might affect the Jumpers and Jazz in July festival.
Last year in September, locals expressed frustration when four Claret Ash trees outside the Criterion Hotel were removed without any known consultation with the community.
A Council spokesperson stated that the trees would be replaced with planter boxes “to freshen up the streetscape”. These changes have not been made.
At the time, chief executive officer, Dave Burges, stated that “the trees were not in the best of health, they had some disease”.
He stated that the planter boxes solution means there’s no damage to infrastructure.
“We’ll trial them, we’ll see how they go,” he said. “The community will tell us what they think.”
Mr Burges stated that Council had applied for half a million dollars in funding under the Building Better Regions Fund to deal with the broader streetscape issue in the region.
If successful, he said Council would be rolling out a million-dollar streetscape program using funds from the grant and from Council.
Tentatively, $600,000 of that would be allocated to Stanthorpe to continue their streetscape program while some would also be used for implementing Urban Design Framework plans.
Some of the money would also be allocated to trial work in Warwick.
UPDATE: Since publication, a Council spokesperson has stated the white spots are to indicate which trees require pruning.
