All the poplar trees in the Stanborough Lakes north car park were felled in January, as you can see from the below it’s a significant loss of tree cover. The two photos were taken from the same spot.
North car park before and after
Many of us remember the outcry in 2008 when the council announced, with no consultation, that all the poplars in both car parks would be felled, on grounds of safety. It was claimed they presented an immediate risk to those using the car parks. A residents campaign, supported by the Society, quickly emerged and many questions were asked as to why this blanket felling suddenly had to happen, there had been no safety incidents caused by the trees. There was a very confrontational meeting at the Lakes in August 2008 (the timing of announcement during the busiest time for holidays was noted) and a resident put some of it on YouTube, which can still be seen today here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQliH_-qf14
Another clip can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPPqKVg5KGE
After some months, and some backtracking in light of the local protest, the council agreed to alter its plans. Only the trees in the south car park (fishing lake) would be felled for now. The car park would then quickly be replanted with “A mixed scheme with a selection of native wide crowned trees ( for example oak, cherry, hornbeam and birch )”, according to the council spokesperson. It was said that the felling and replanting of the north car park would follow after that. Below is a photo of the felling from November 2008:
So, ten years on how is the mixed scheme with a selection of native wide crowned trees ( for example oak, cherry, hornbeam and birch) getting on? Not very well in our opinion, see the below pictures:
The dearth of trees in the south car park 10 years on (Jan 2019)
A few hundred trees have been replaced with a few dozen (Jan 2019)
It strikes us that the species of tree that has clearly thrived since the replanting ten years ago is the poplar, quite an irony. This shows the original choice of the lombardy poplar tree way back when was a good one. The wide open space that now exists in most of the former tree rows is presumably because the new trees failed for whatever reason. Be that lack of watering or wrong species chosen for that ground condition, we don’t know. Whichever, we are sure it would have been an expensive exercise which can in no way be claimed to have been successful. The car park is certainly less attractive and less verdant than it used to be.
Now, ten years on, the north car park trees have been felled, they will also be replaced once the stumps are removed. We sincerely hope that lessons have been learned and whatever is replanted ends up far a more successful story than that of the south car park, as depicted by the photos. We also hope the south car park will be given the appropriate tlc it requires to get its own stock of trees replenished and thriving.
We are keenly aware that all of this is happening in the run up to the centenary year of our “Garden City” 2020 – should we not be conserving our trees to show the town off in its best light as a garden city rather than embarking on a programme to fell hundreds of trees just prior to the centenary celebrations when many high profile events are scheduled to take place.
Administrator |
splashlands, Trees |
02 3rd, 2019 |
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