Council asks: 'Where would you like to see trees?'
?"
The shade trees group recently presented a petition to the Council calling on it to fund urban greening to address the urban heat island effect.
The petition had attracted more than 700 signatures.
"Council is now calling on residents to nominate tree planting locations before June 2 as an extension of the community planning documents currently on exhibition," said group member Ms Miriam McInnes.
"Urban heat affects community health and safety," she said.
She said the Australian Medical Association recently stated: "Heatwaves have a greater impact on population health in Australia than any other natural hazard, and are associated with a significant increase in mortality and morbidity rates."
"The Peninsula sits below 10 per cent urban canopy cover and experiences temperatures more than five degrees hotter than surrounding areas; conditions defined as an urban heat crisis," she said.
"With canopy well below the state government's recommended 40 per cent cover for liveable, resilient suburbs, it is well overdue that Council fund tangible urban greening activities.
"At present, Council budgets only $35,000 annually for urban greening activities, which equates to less than 10 cents per resident.
"While council has produced numerous strategies and plans over the previous decade, outlining the urban heat crisis, it has failed to fund any activities to address the issue.
"Many surrounding councils, including Wollongong, Newcastle and many Greater Sydney councils have excellent urban greening programs with adequate funding and admirable canopy targets.
"Central Coast Council could utilise the expertise of these surrounding councils along with the new State Government's new Cooler Places Hub to implement a suitable urban greening program within our community."
Ms McInnes said the Grow Urban Shade Trees group was encouraging the community to make submissions prior to June 2, by both "dropping a tree request pin" on the Council's interactive map on the Your Voice Our Coast submissions page, as well as making submissions to the Planning Our Future suite of documents, asking for urban greening to be funded within the Delivery Program.
"We need your voice behind us at this vital time."
The documents are available online at https://www.yourvoiceourcoast.com
SOURCE:
Media release, 13 May 2025
Miriam McInnes, GUST