THEY WON: The six pohutukawa trees that Aucklanders had protested to stop being cut down will be allowed to stay

Six central Auckland pohutukawa trees have had a reprieve, with the city's transport agency voting not to accept a recommendation they be cut down.

Protesters carrying placards saying "stop the chop" and "don't silence the trees" packed the appropriately named "Kauri Room" in Auckland Transport's (AT) downtown headquarters for its board meeting this afternoon.

AT had until today to decide whether to accept the decision of an independent hearing panel that the trees next to the St Lukes overbridge at Western Springs be cut down to make way for an extra turning lane, a busway and a cycleway.

But local residents and interest groups were aghast that mature trees planted in a Depression-era project to develop the city's greenspaces should be felled.

Save the trees group spokesperson Jolisa Gracewood was one of only two speakers allowed to address the meeting.

Cutting down the trees would be "the equivalent of selling the family silver", she told the board.

"It's not worthy of AT, this design, you can do so much better," she said.

"We urge you to choose an interim solution, to pause."

AT said it had looked at seven different options, but believed there was no other way it could fit in the extra lane plus a busway and cycle path other than to remove the trees.

It was doing the work now in conjunction with the national transport agency's work to upgrade the northwestern motorway, which would save around $2 million.

Chief operating officer Greg Edmonds told the meeting that if the board rejected the recommendation the process would stop.

Waitemata Local Board chairman Shale Chambers also addressed the meeting, telling board members wider plans for the area needed to be taken into account.

The Museum of Transport and Technology across the road had just made information on its future plans available, and plans were also being developed for the wider recreation area including Western Springs.

"The need for a masterplan is reinforced by the amount of planning and project work that has either been recently completed or is scheduled to be undertaken in the area," he said.

Chairman Lester Levy told the protesters off for heckling and interjecting in the board's discussions today.

"We didn't come down in the last tide, we understand what's going on," he said.