Photographic evidence

And this was confirmed in the council’s press release.

I wrote to The Star (February 6, 2016, p12) referring to Councillor Price and others saying that Streets Ahead will be replacing felled highway trees on a one-for-one basis and in the case of Rustlings Road on a more generous basis of 19 to replace the 11 originally listed for felling.

The additional eight replacement trees were, I understand, to replace trees felled in the past but not replaced.

Well it seems it’s now 17 to replace eight rather than 19 to replace 11.

Wow that’s one extra tree over the earlier poor plan.

In my letter in February I added ... “Well, I’ve been looking at photographs of Rustlings Road from around the time the road was built and the trees planted, around 1900, and at later photographs and maps (on picturesheffield website and in the Local Studies Library) and I noticed that the planting intervals of around three to four yards would indicate that there would have been over 90 trees planted on EACH side of the road between Oakbrook Road and Ecclesall Road.

There are currently 17 trees on the built-up side where the houses are and a mere 14 on the Endcliffe Park side – a total of 31 highway trees as against the approximately 190 trees originally planted c.1900!

So if Streets Ahead (Sheffield CC / Amey) would like to put it back to the way that Sheffield City councillors originally intended when the road was built then the replacement number of trees should be more like 150 NOT 19!

At a time when Streets Ahead seem hell bent on felling trees then 150 replacements might be asking a bit much but only 19?

Come on that’s anything but generous when compared to the original intention.

Any visitor to the area cannot avoid noticing the massive gaps between the highway trees.

The fact that there are trees in the nearby park while obviously welcome should not distract from the destruction carried in the past on the highway trees and threatened in the future.

If the councillors do want to leave a tree legacy for the Rustlings Road streetscene then I suggest they stop felling trees on there and give us back a good proportion of the 150 that have already been lost.

For those who want to check the photographs visit www.picturesheffield.com and select image numbers s1926, s19134, s19136, s19137 and t06708 and/or look at the maps in the Local studies Libary references 294.11.16 and 294 10 20 (both 1903) and 294.10.19 (1904).

That sentiment still stands.

Rustlings Road traveller

PS Councillor Lodge said on the radio (Radio Sheffield, Toby Foster Show, November 18, 2016) that signs had been placed in the locality warning of planned works.

Well I never saw any and I looked every day and the fact that people had to be awoken at 5 am to move cars would indicate that none of them did either!

It’s time for Coun Lodge to produce his photographic evidence that the signs were there that he claims his operatives have.

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