Five trees along High St are to be retained under new plans released by Waka Kotahi. On Tuesday, Livinya continued her fight by presenting a copy of the petition to the Motueka Community Board and spoke, along with others, in favour of the trees’ retention. In a statement on Thursday, Waka Kotahi director of regional relationships Emma Speight said the agency had heard the concerns. “In light of this, we have further reviewed our designs and are able to keep five trees that were going to be removed,” Speight said. “We will still need to remove some trees to provide space for the new traffic signals. These trees are in the road reserve, and we need this space for the turning lanes at the intersections, to help drivers turn right.”