A COUNCIL has taken the extraordinary step of stacking two empty shipping containers on a clifftop to spoil water views for householders suspected of illegally cutting down trees.
Port Stephens Council put them there - with a crane, at a cost of more than $10,000 - to punish those responsible for cutting down 20 trees.
Mr Trigar said the containers had been put on the cliff partly to protect saplings that had been planted to replace the brutalised banksias, but
there were no new plantings in evidence.
"They've spent over $10,000 on this, when they could have just replanted the trees for a few hundred dollars," railed local resident Carol Kearins.
"And now they say these containers will stay here for up to three years. If they're treating us like children, surely we're too immature to keep paying our rates."
"We've told people that chopping down trees is selfish and criminal, but that hasn't worked, so we've had to go to the next level."
Mr Trigar is unrepentant.
clipped from: www.news.com.au 