HINDMARSH Shire’s first street and tree reserve strategy will prioritise increased shade across the municipality’s four main towns.
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Hindmarsh Shire Council has adopted the strategy to manage, renew and enhance its urban tree population.
It comes after community consultation and an assessment from consultants Urban Forest Consulting and Tree Logic identified numerous opportunities.
Improved shade and tree coverage in high-traffic areas were among the priorities listed in Hindmarsh council’s 2017-21 plan.
Earlier this year, consultants assessed more than 130 streets across the shire’s four main towns, and identified more than 5000 street trees.
However they also identified more than 2000 additional sites where trees could be planted.
Only a quarter of the sites with trees were considered to have 'fair' aesthetic values, with the remainder either rated fair to poor, or poor.
Hindmarsh Shire mayor Ron Ismay said community consultation followed this process, where residents discussed creating a unique theme or character for each town through the planting of specific trees.
Cr Ismay said community involvement would be a key to the strategy.
“We had Wendy Werner from the Jeparit Town Committee come along to one of our meetings and she discussed the need for us to put extra funding into tree plantings,” he said.
“We’re hoping to have a meeting with Jeparit residents and get the community involved. They would like to see more trees around.
“We had allowed for 15 new trees in each town each year as that’s all we felt we could do, but Wendy suggested it would take a long time to achieve what we wanted.
“Local involvement would help speed things up.”
Council’s 2018-19 budget includes $30,000 for urban tree planting across the shire. This equates to a maximum of 60 street trees being planted each year, less than half the recommended annual target of 150 plantings across the four towns.
Hindmarsh Shire councillors adopted the new strategy, and council will also consider increasing its expenditure in future budget processes to meet the recommended planting target.
IN OTHER council news, Rainbow-Nhill Road will be upgraded after Hindmarsh council received state government funding.
The upgrade will cost $980,000, with the government contributing about $800,000 and council the remainder.
The project will include three parts: widening of the existing Outlet Creek concrete bridge to increase traffic lanes to 3.5 metres; reconstructing Sandhill Bend to make it wider; and widening and sealing about 2.3 kilometres of narrow pavement north of Lorquon Road.
Council hopes to complete the projects by mid-2019.
Meanwhile, construction for the Nhill Skate Park will start early next year.
Council consultation with Powercor means the new park will now be adjacent to, rather than under, power lines at Jaypex Park.
Council chief executive Greg Wood said although the original location was within a safe distance from the power lines, council and Powercor agreed the new location was more suitable.
He said the Western Highway limited options to move the skate park north, so council would construct the park further back from the highway than initially planned, necessitating the removal of three trees.
The skate park is due to be finished in April.