Hi Guys,
Jim i believe that its been in effect since 95' but i will have to check, as far as my take goes, it has its benefits and negatives. The main benefit is stopping developers bulldozing sections but the main dis-advantage is that it can take up to 3 months for a consent to get processed and its not garanteed a result. also some of the council arborists seem to be de-tached from what the tree industry is about and at the end of the day everyone is there to make a dollar not necessarily massicure trees.
Also there is alot of politically driven problems especially when dealing with historic trees and scheduled "phoenix palms' which means every little old lady can have there say on a tree issue, i think they should leave it up to the people than know.
