How to surreptitiously kill a palm tree

I have a Kentia palm: ugly, misplaced (1m from a majestic Livingstonia, in a narrow garden bed) and unhealthy (crown drop, with all fronds flopped to one side of the tree).

The local council refused its removal (despite my wish to replace it with better-suited flowering, native trees and shrubs to improve biodiversity and visual amenity).

So I need stealth. The most obvious is ringbarking, but it would probably show, if a neighbour complained and anyone inspected it.
What else will work, invisibly?  What is the achilles heel of a Kentia Palm?

There are a hundred ways to kill a tree. Too much water, too little water, too acidic, too alkaline, and all sorts of nasty bizarre commercial molecules.

But there is more in this than meets the eye. Enlighten me: Why are you not allowed to whack this tree?

Do any of your neighbors have security cameras? Now that you have been told not to remove it, killing it and getting caught may not go so well for you.

And since I am not the least bit interested in killing trees, I won't suggest ways to kill them. ~But there are a ton of You Tube videos on how to accomplish your task.

A picture would really help. Also, a better definition of a "Livingstonia".

A better feel for why the council prefers it to stay would also be helpful. Do they feel it just needs help to cope in its location?

I am certainly familiar with the "wrong tree in the wrong place" feeling. A house we bought had a Eucalyptus right beside the front porch. Too fast growing for so close, and marginal for our occasionally too cold winter.  It ended up rotting and becoming dangerous. Not sure what I'll put in its spot, as I don't want to make the same mistake twice.

OK.  So here's a couple of photos, showing both the crowns (Kentia and the Cabbage Palm) as well as the proximity of the trunks to one another.  
I live in an inner city area of Sydney, where councils default to refusing permission to remove (and in some cases, even prune) trees.

The letter I wrote when I applied mentioned my desire to plant more diverse, local, habitat-friendly species (which I have done) -and to protect the more significant Livingstonia,  but as they send out an arborist to assess.  not an ecologist / landscaper; the only question thy are interested in is whether a given tree "looks healthy" or not.

Trees that appear to have been irretrievably sabotaged might be removed, but you may be required to replace it with an identical one - this happened to my neighbours.
Hence the need for stealth - ideally something that is clear ill-health, but attributable to the close proximity of other planting - like a dwarf gum, tree ferns, and melaleuca. (that I want to retain).

From your description, it's the shorter tree you want gone?

The taller one looks awfully close to the building. Is its girth likely to keep increasing? I'm assuming, it's the one you want to protect? With it being so close, that could be difficult.

I once almost killed a bamboo by giving it seaweed. Apparently bamboo, *really* doesn't like seaweed. So planting things that the palm isn't compatible with may be one approach.

Hi Mary,
Sometimes it comes down to wording and liability. If the council doesn't care about native species, do they care about your safety? Do they care about being sued? I'm not sure how the laws are in Australia, but here in the US, if a town/county did not allow someone to take down a failing tree and it landed on a house or person, they could be sued for a lot of money. You mention the Palm has a lot of crown drop and doesn't look like its doing well. Could you approach this as a safety issue? This tree is dying, I worry it might fall on my house. It needs to come down for the safety of me and my family? That sort of thing?

When questions like this come up, I can appreciate living in an area where I can cut down any tree I want on my own property.

I have found that short letters utilizing words like 'liability' and 'safety' have a very... encouraging impact on local government.

I had a large maple tree out front of my house that has been there forever. I hated to lose it, but it was starting to develop some cracking and splitting.

I sent letter #1 first informing them of the issue and the chance that it could hit my fronts porch. A week later, a tree company showed up and removed some limbs.

I waited a year, and by this chance we had some woodpeckers who found this tree to be a buffet of delicious bugs so they went to town creating rotten tree mulch all around the tree.

I sent letter #2 informing them of the deterioration and requesting for someone to at least check out the tree.

The next day, I came home and the tree had been felled and the crew was finishing cleaning it up.

I hate being a bother, but sometimes the nudging gets things done. Be respectful, be short, and be firm.

Epsom salts will kill a tree.

I would be worried about the liability of having a dead tree of that size.

Dead trees attract insects as they decompose.  

Damaged trees could fall on surrounding properties damaging vehicles or hurting people.

Is the reasoning to kill a tree so that the council will then permit the tree to be removed?  What if the permission is still not granted?

I would be concerned that anything you do to the less desirable tree might damage the one you want to protect in some way?

If it's your tree on your property why can't you just have it cut down and removed?
I reread your post and understand now

Thanks you guys.
for some additional detail.

My original letter did indeed mention safety - the fence it droops over would be insufficient to prevent it hurting anyone on the adjacent driveway.
I might try the liability route.

Mary Gallos wrote:My original letter did indeed mention safety - the fence it droops over would be insufficient to prevent it hurting anyone on the adjacent driveway.
I might try the liability route.

I'm sure you can arrange a "letter of concern" from your insurance company that will tip the balance in your favour. Better also if your neighbour is on-side with removal. As mentioned above, municipalities can bend the rules is there is enough paperwork to cover their tails.