Kalamunda tree canopy responses

Dear Echo News,

Here’s a study in contrasting responses to the lack of tree canopy in Kalamunda.

I recently wrote to Main Roads to ask for urgent infill planting along Kalamunda-Roe Highway bypass and in the wide roundabouts.

Tens of thousands of trees and shrubs from across Perth’s landscape are removed each year for road building.

At the highway bypass site, a heat sink has been created for any pedestrian who dares to walk from one side to the other in summer. The added glare of concrete hits motorists driving around its wide bare roundabouts.

Main Roads responded promptly to my request, sending a crew to assess the dire lack of vegetation.

Days later, they dispatched a team to plant out the roundabouts.

Sadly, we will still have to wait several years for shade to emerge, but at least growth can occur this winter.

A Main Roads customer officer wrote to me: “While we face ongoing challenges in allocating resources across the state, we value community input and acknowledge the importance of maintaining and restoring green spaces, particularly in urban areas…Your advocacy plays an important role in shaping a more sustainable future for our community.”

Main Roads urged me to contact the City of Kalamunda regarding greening the road edges leading up to the roundabouts “as these areas fall under the management of the city.”

So, I did. The response? City staff wrote back to “acknowledge the lower canopy cover along Kalamunda Road particularly in the median and verge areas”.

“We appreciate your suggestion (but)…we are unfortunately unable to accommodate additional planting along the bypass corridor.”

Why? Because spending is needed on canopy cover to “adjacent areas such as Maida Vale, Forrestfield, High Wycombe and Wattle Grove (which) also show significant canopy shortfalls.”

The City of Kalamunda staff are right – these suburbs are hotter than many in the entire metropolitan area because so many trees and shrubs have been bulldozed.

But the staff are not to blame – they are hamstrung by poor decisions passed by its own councillors.

Two years ago, $200,000 was budgeted for tree planting and maintenance, now it has been slashed to a quarter of that, or $50,000. Last year it dipped to a paltry $30,000.

There is no current protection for trees in our city, thanks to another council decision to rescind Kalamunda’s pioneering LPP 33 Tree Retention policy last year.

The recent release of a new draft LPP 33, laughably called ‘Future Forest’, promises zero conservation of trees on private property.

So, with no logical council policy, and not enough money to plant trees for a ‘future forest’, our city councillors offer few solutions.

They might like to look to Main Roads to learn how you properly respond to the wishes of the local community.

V Laurie

Gooseberry Hill

Riverside Park run parking

Dear Echo News,

I do the Woodbridge Riverside Park Run nearly every Saturday along with 150 to 250 others.

It is a great, well-supported community event, but parking is of course very tight.

A few weeks ago, the City of Swan fined a runner $120 for parking in the bus bay.

I talked to her and thought the city’s attitude was ridiculous.

I have run the Park Run over 300 times and never seen a bus there at park run times.

If the city is serious about promoting community events, surely they can allow people to park in the bus bay and around the circle by the playground between the hours of 7.00am and 9.30am on Saturdays.

I don’t think it would be difficult to get a page full of signatures of people who agree with me.

R Merrells

Viveash

Keep sick kids at home

Dear Echo News,

It is important for parents whose children have respiratory illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to not send them to daycare when they are likely to be contagious.

This is important not just for the sick children themselves but also for the other children and their educators, especially those who have underlying health conditions.

RSV spreads easily by coughing and sneezing.

Symptoms of RSV can include: a runny nose, coughing, sneezing, decreased appetite, fever, wheezing and difficulty breathing (including worsening of asthma).

According to the Department of Health, RSV can cause serious respiratory illnesses like bronchiolitis (swelling of the small airways) and pneumonia (lung infection) in babies and young children.

It can also increase the risk of longer-term breathing problems like childhood asthma.

RSV is very common, and more than half of all babies will get infected before their first birthday.

Despite every year about one in every 30 babies in WA being hospitalised with RSV parents are still sending their children to daycare when they have a respiratory condition.

Since when has money been more important than lives?

Concerned parent

Jane Brook