Glen Innes is a town on the Northern Tablelands in the New England region of New South Wales Australia, with a population of 6,155 people. Completed in 2015, The CBD Master Plan proposed a $2.2 million dollar investment in the Glen Innes CBD. The Plan addressed a number of issues including improvements in pedestrian safety, upgrade of street lighting to meet Australian Standards, development of a town square/shared zone in front of the Town Hall, and tree planting in the centre of the street as well as garden upgrades and development.
Graham Archibald, Manager of Recreation and Open Spaces at the Glen Innes Severn Council, said, “Before this overhaul, there were no trees, limited central gardens with remnants of plantings, and the street looked drab and uninviting. There was also no central area for the community to gather to celebrate town events.
“Our primary objective was to establish areas that were able to provide the luxury of tree plantings whilst not heavily compromising parking spaces or the growth of the trees. There were also a number of service pipes etc. that had to be worked around and protected where the trees were to be planted, therefore root control was required.
“Upon research and consultation, Citygreen’s Stratacell technology was chosen, with 12 Pyrus Calleryana ‘Chanticleer’ trees planted in 12 pits measuring 5 x 5 metres. This did not only allow for maximum growth benefits for the trees but also allowed for traffic loading over the area allowing Council to still have car parking adjacent to the trees. Even the area under the trees has been utilised for motorbike parking.
“Today, the trees are absolutely powering and it has helped soften the landscape of the CBD area. The area is now more inviting to stop in with the softening effect on the whole area, especially with a lot of businesses having now also repainted their buildings in original heritage colours. The community was also happy that it did not lose as many carparks as first thought.
“The key benefits were the ease of use of the product combined with the ability of Citygreen to give onsite induction training, as well as easy follow up contacts no matter how simple or difficult a question was. It was also good that there were no issues with delivery or extra orders of the product and best all Citygreen staff have been fantastic to deal with, nothing is ever an issue.”