In the Earlwood Suburb within the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA of Sydney, a significant number of mature street trees have been removed over the last 24 months—many without community awareness and with either no replacement or with non-native low shrubs that provide no shade coverage.

 A number of individuals in our community have reached out regarding these issues but have not received satisfactory responses or remedies. Our community is passionate about the environment and needs to see movement.

Commencing 11 June, 15 additional mature street trees are due to be cut down  on Clarke St and Earlwood Ave, Earlwood Town Centre.

These trees are due to be cut down based on concerns around the footpath creating slip hazards, however when inspected, the current footpath surrounding all these trees appears to be intact.

These trees are due to be replaced with a crepe myrtle.

For this large environmental issue, the only community consultation that took place was inclusion on the Council website, contained within a 40km/hr speed limit/speed humps submission. The majority of the community were not proactively communicated to for such a large project, and even for those who submitted responses, the outcome of the submission was not communicated.

We ask Canterbury Bankstown Council to postpone the planned removal of these 15 trees, pending further community consultation on remedial options, species choice, and biodiversity impacts/solutions.

Additionally, we call on Council for a full review and improvement of their community consultation process, particularly as it pertains to environmental works. This will ensure that the community has transparency on works and that ratepayers' wishes - not only business wishes - are incorporated.

Please sign this petition to protect our local environment and drive change for better communication from our Council.