By Linda Clarke  February 4 2010

Mid Canterbury farmers are scratching their heads after receiving letters from the Ashburton District Council saying trees on their rural properties are illegally shading roads.

Some farmers don’t even have trees on the roads indicated in the letters and others have trees nowhere near the roads indicated.

 The letters point out the offending trees are non-compliant with the Ashburton District Plan because they shade roads throughout the day in winter or are planted within 30m of an intersection.

 Council policy requires non-compliant trees to be controlled or removed because they are a safety hazard.

 Council roading manager Dave Robertson said 500 letters were sent to farmers in the past 10 days asking them to deal with offending trees.

 The trees had been identified during a two-week sweep of the district recently by a council employee.

 Mr Robertson said the roads indicated in the letters were physical addresses of the people who lived on the properties and not the specific site of the offending trees.

 Phones had rung hot at council as farmers tried to work out how they were in breach.

 Specific details of where the offending trees are will be sent later in the month, in response to that feedback.

 Mr Robertson said trees planted decades ago could now be shading roads in the winter, meaning ice on roads did not melt and remained a safety issue.

 It was a serious problem that farmers and council were legally required to address.

 He said ice had been a contributing factor in a fatal accident on Seafield Road several years ago.

 “There were other circumstances too, but if the ice had not been there it wouldn’t have happened. It is enshrined in law under the Transport Act that a road control authority can require trees shading roads to be removed.”

 Farmers had a good idea which trees might be causing problems, but had asked for more details, he said.

 Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers president Michael Morrow said farmers were sympathetic to the problem.

 “Nobody wants anything on their property to be creating a black spot as far as dangerous icy conditions in the winter are concerned.”

 But shelter belts and trees were part of the rural environment and motorists who ventured off the state highway should be cautious.

 “When you are driving in the country there is livestock and machinery, and trees.”

 Mr Robertson said farmers needed to trim or top trees causing a problem.

 Shelter belts could be cut to allow wind to pass through and melt dangerous ice.

 “There’s more than one way to skin a cat and we are happy to meet farmers on site and talk.”

 Farmers who don’t act will have to wear the cost of council arranging the work.