3 Way Close, Carlingford NSW 2118

What does pruning/removal mean - it's either one or the other? Be careful if pruning is approved as in all likelihood the tree will be removed, as my family recently experienced.

I cannot understand why so many trees are being destroyed in the Carlingford area. Carlingford was always a beautiful green place but now, so many old and magnificent trees and shrubs are being removed - at times illegally.

Please respect our natural environment and work with the trees and our wildlife, not against them.

I think the "pruning/removal" reference relates to the fact that the application form to remove a tree includes the question:

"Do you wish to obtain approval for pruning should removal not be supported"

Given the description on this application I would think there may be a good case for pruning rather than removal. While the planning alerts service forwards comments to Parramatta Council, I believe the council will only consider feedback if residents send comments directly to the council themselves. Consequently, your comments may have more impact if you do this.

More generally, I fully share you concern about the scale of tree removal in the suburb, sometimes for quite minor reasons. Sometimes trees do have to be removed for valid reasons, but I would like to see the Council Tree Policy revised so that, wherever possible, consent to remove a tree is conditional on the applicant replacing the tree, either in the same or an appropriate alternative position. We had occasion to remove a failing hisbiscus tree ourselves a few years ago. On the application we indicated an intention to replace the tree with four native trees. The council inspector was very helpful, and suggested that for the replacements we consider a different species to the one we had proposed. We followed this advice and we now have four thriving native lemon myrtle trees.