The following is just a little refresher of what 'can' happen when council authorities get carried away with a chain saw...
This article first appeared on Save Southport Greenbelt website back in 2005...
http://ssgb.150m.com/
Council demolishes line of mature trees in Southport - why?
Sunday June 26, 2005
Above: 'Before' the Council tree 'experts' moved in.
Beautiful mature trees on Marine Drive, Southport - waiting for the axe?
Residents of Harrogate Way in Southport are right to be incensed at the ludicrous butchery of the line of trees along Marine Drive.
I recall when working many years ago with the local arboricultural team, during the time that the dreaded Dutch elm disease was decimating Southport, that we planted hundreds of these now mature trees as small four foot whips along the Marine Drive. To see these established willows and sycamores massacred like this is an act of gross ecological vandalism and one can only stand back in horror at the amount of birds’ nests etc that will have been destroyed via this unwarranted action. Did the Council bosses request an ecological survey of species of wildlife present from the Environment Agency before undertaking this operation?
When large trees require some essential pruning, let’s say for safety reasons, they should be cut in the winter, thereby minimising impact on wildlife and the trees themselves. This also makes less work for operatives as they are not then in leaf. Sefton Council bosses are clearly out of touch with modern ecological and conservation thinking and I feel that the 'officials' behind this outrage need to be urgently sent on informative courses to educate them for future reference.
Apparently, residents had asked the Council to 'trim' these trees and were horrified at the drastic butchery that then took place.
The environment needs 'more' trees not less and I urge residents to protest further at this disgusting state of affairs. Not only will the wildlife be affected but the residents will also now have a greater lack of privacy and increased pollution/noise from the adjacent busy road to put up with.
"We've managed this operation as sensitively as we can"
Reg Clappison, Tree and Woodland Manager
Above: 'After' the Council tree man moved in.
A huge gape now exists where before proud willow, sycamore and elms once stood.
Local residents were appalled.
Councils and chainsaws DO NOT always make for the greatest environmental concern!
Eco terrorism at it's worse. Still I guess it kept a few people employed for a short while at the tax payer's expense !!
ReplyDeleteSo very true - and I KNOW how all this works after spending a decade on a tree unit myself, many moons ago.
Delete