News adding more urgency to campaign

Replacing the trees one for one is not acceptable as it will take between 20 and 50 years for the saplings they are planting to offer the same pollution control as the mature trees they are destroying, thus leading to more ill health.

Here in Norfolk Park we have very few street trees. The council should be planting more, especially on busy roads that suffer from high levels of pollution like City Road and Granville Road. The council want to fell most of the mature street trees in the area. Save Norfolk Park Trees have gained the expertise of an ecologist to give a second opinion, as it is clear that Amey are much more interested in their profits than saving our trees.

The ecologist has found that because of the many years of neglect that the trees have suffered from a council that has shown little interest in tree maintenance, that in many cases replacement is unfortunately the best option. So for instance the beautiful horse chestnut trees on Norfolk Park Road are in poor health because the Council have aspahalted right up to their trunks and they are now suffering from canker and rot.

There are two notable street trees in the Norfolk Park area which definitely should not be cut down.

These are the sycamore trees on Seabrook Road and Tylney Road which the council say are damaging the pavement. There are provisions in the contract with Amey to allow for engineering solutions such as flexible paving to be used in such cases and there is absolutely no reason for not doing so for these trees.

The consultation process in Norfolk Park has been a complete farce, with one road missed out altogether (Norfolk Park Avenue) and many households not receiving a survey.

Residents of Norfolk Park can find out more about their street trees on Facebook. See Save Norfolk Park Trees.

Graham Wroe

Save Norfolk Park Trees, [email protected]