Here are a few more photos. Hopefully they will help in my attempt to compare this site to the dilemma of the world today. I see it as a snapshot of the world.

When I first walked across the field on the old St Mary's site, I was gripped with a sense of loss and despair. I saw the two huge old oak trees, one needlessly chainsawed down, the other still standing, arms out with it's 80year old partner no longer there to embrace.

I could see the standing tree now looking hideously deformed as, where the partner tree had been, was now empty.

It made me think that we are at a crossroads. One road leading to more thoughtless development and the other to a sustainable and greener future.

What's you choice?

What makes these trees special is that thousands of Gisborne's citizens have sat under these trees as school children. I have been amazed at the number of people who have come up to me said that they too had sat under these trees. My parents did, I did, and my children have also. That 's one of the fabulous inter generational things about trees. These trees are truly iconic and need protecting, the question is who will protect them if the Gisborne District Council doesn't put a tree protection policy in place? Their Draft 10 Year Plan is without anything around protecting and enhancing the big trees of Gisborne.

This situation is an example of reckless development. It's a slash and burn type approach. Any developer with an ounce of social conscience would have stopped to consider how best to use these trees. If I was Mr Developer I would have called the development "The Oaks" and built a playground around these trees. A little bit of thought could have turned what was a negative (in the developers mind) into a positive.

I notice more trees are marked to come down!