Nature Strip

We awoke this morning to find that in the night (alright, we didn't go out the front door yesterday afternoon) a row of gum trees had sprouted on our nature strip without warning.
We didn't get one right outside, and one neighbour told the planters to get away from his bit of the strip, and they obliged.

Now, we're in favour of street trees, but the proximity to the street elms is ridiculous. What's going on here??

Conspiracy theory #1: The Council wants to forestall a possible plan to copy the current Gardening Australia series starring that nice bearded chap on ABC1 with residents  planting a full scale vege garden along what in Sydney is called the "verge".

Conspiracy theory #2: Beset with complaints of cracking walls caused by street elm roots, the Council will remove the offenders shortly. If so, the Council may not be aware that unless every last root is removed (impossible) the remaining roots fight to create thousands of new elms, as has been demonstrated when the Council cut roots out of our side gutter a couple of months ago. Since then a weekly elm hunt has been a highlight of gardening: the number of baby elms summarily dealt with so far is too  large to estimate, and we know the roots are still bursting with life energy.

Conspiracy theory #3: Concerned about resident objections to a planned new apartment block with reduced parking requirements, the Council reckons that moving the trees from the road to the nature strip will provide room for several more car parks.

Intelligence sources may furnish a further briefing when the situation is clarified.