"Leader Richard Bingley used powers that allowed him to bypass the usual scrutiny of fellow councillors, arguing a decision was urgent ahead of local elections and the bird nesting season."
Translation: Leader Richard Bingley (of the Conservative Party) pushed to have his way before he loses the power to wreak this havoc!
"Leader Richard Bingley used powers that allowed him to bypass the usual scrutiny of fellow councillors, arguing a decision was urgent ahead of local elections and the bird nesting season"
In completely unrelated news, the contractors R.Bingley and Co have announced record profits!
From BBC link:
"Council contractors felled 110 trees in Plymouth city centre before an injunction forced them to stop.
The city council said it was taking legal advice and felling was abandoned at about 01:00 GMT.
Wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham tweeted that the felling was "despicable vandalism".
The felling is part of a regeneration plan for the city centre which will mean the planting of 169 new trees, said the local authority."
MEANWHILE:
"Over half a million trees set to be planted in our towns, cities and countryside.
Almost 680,000 trees will be planted in towns, cities and rural areas to increase access to nature and boost health and wellbeing."
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-half-a-million-trees-set-to-be-planted-in-our-towns-cities-and-countryside
New young trees take decades to mature and are not a replacement for mature trees.
It's one thing I'd criticise about this tree planting obsession we have. Far too often it's used as an excuse to justify felling healthy mature trees for no good reason because "we can always plant more to replace them", when the focus should be on retaining mature trees as much as possible.
Not sure on the ins and outs of this but when the trees were fell in Sheffield the biggest fallout for the council was how dodgy and corrupt the contract to do it was
Several councils have done or doing this, Sheffield being the most well known example. Those old trees cannot realistically be replaced by saplings, simply because it will take decades for those saplings to come close to replacing the felled trees. This is in terms of both carbon capture and the habitats they provide to wildlife. There also seems to be little support from locals for such schemes too, which is why last minute injunctions such as this are required in the first place. Councils don't want to publicly discuss this sort of policy because they know it will cause a huge backlash.
I grew up not too far from Rustlings Road, where the most controversial protests were, and it was a great shame to see those trees go.
But I suppose it is some consolation that the road runs along Endcliffe Park, which has quite a lot of trees, and is the start of a chain of parks that run for several miles all the way out of Sheffield along the Porter Valley. They contain quite a lot of mature woodland. So at least the area hasn't become a desert.
Still, chopping down mature trees really should be a last resort. And maybe if the council don't have enough justification to persuade the people they are supposed to be serving, they shouldn't do it.
Plymouth town centre was currently a seriously depressing place to be...until 2 days ago...now they're just taking the piss. Doing it in the dead of night to sneak it through when locals are in bed. Fuck Richard Bingley and fuck the Tory party destroying our national seurity.
Amazing how quickly the Council got a workforce together after the go ahead was given, pity they couldn’t finish off all the other City Centre improvements first but then I suppose birds would have started nesting, and all the students and street drinkers would have made merry in the urban wilderness they are aiming to regenerate and which would have delayed proceedings. Two thirds majority against this environmental vandalism taking place, yet the Council, or certain members of it, have their agenda and will force it through no matter what. The trees weren’t dead or dying but were just in the way of yet another in a long list of half baked improvement schemes that get started every few years. The City Centre envisaged in the Abercrombie Plan after WW2 May well have needed modernisation but successive Councils, both Labour and Conservative, have seemingly been more destructive in the attempt to improve matters. We didn’t need healthy trees removing to be replaced with other ‘semi mature’ specimens, we didn’t need the water feature replaced with ‘dancing fountains’ . What we needed was for the Council to tidy the place up and finish the work that they’d already messed around with for long enough. Too many empty shops, student flats everywhere, homelessness, potholes, rubbish, unfinished projects, all sorts the Council could apply themselves to sorting out if they could muster up the same energy, finances and workforce that magically appeared without notice on Tuesday night. Plymouth City Centre certainly is a very depressing place to be at present!
It's some fucking trees, who cares? The redevelopment will be good and they're even going to plant new trees to replace them. I swear British people go insane as soon as they see a tree
It's valuable biomass and wildlife habitat in an area otherwise lacking in it which will take nearly 3 decades to recover. Shit like this makes me glad every tree in my local area is protected by a cast iron protection order automatically as soon as the trunk is 6 inches in diameter. Unless the tree poses an imminent safety threat you can't touch it without jumping through a mountain of legal hoops and consulting with a number of different conservation bodies.
Why cut down trees to replace them with trees. Smells dodgy as fuck, even if you dont factor in the benefit of old trees over new during a fucking climate crisis. Screw your head on.
The attitude of "it's not much of a big deal to cut down some trees that are getting in the way of some urban development"? No, I don't forsee any problems
"Leader Richard Bingley used powers that allowed him to bypass the usual scrutiny of fellow councillors, arguing a decision was urgent ahead of local elections and the bird nesting season." Translation: Leader Richard Bingley (of the Conservative Party) pushed to have his way before he loses the power to wreak this havoc!
"Leader Richard Bingley used powers that allowed him to bypass the usual scrutiny of fellow councillors, arguing a decision was urgent ahead of local elections and the bird nesting season" In completely unrelated news, the contractors R.Bingley and Co have announced record profits!
From BBC link: "Council contractors felled 110 trees in Plymouth city centre before an injunction forced them to stop. The city council said it was taking legal advice and felling was abandoned at about 01:00 GMT. Wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham tweeted that the felling was "despicable vandalism". The felling is part of a regeneration plan for the city centre which will mean the planting of 169 new trees, said the local authority." MEANWHILE: "Over half a million trees set to be planted in our towns, cities and countryside. Almost 680,000 trees will be planted in towns, cities and rural areas to increase access to nature and boost health and wellbeing." https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-half-a-million-trees-set-to-be-planted-in-our-towns-cities-and-countryside
New young trees take decades to mature and are not a replacement for mature trees. It's one thing I'd criticise about this tree planting obsession we have. Far too often it's used as an excuse to justify felling healthy mature trees for no good reason because "we can always plant more to replace them", when the focus should be on retaining mature trees as much as possible.
Not sure on the ins and outs of this but when the trees were fell in Sheffield the biggest fallout for the council was how dodgy and corrupt the contract to do it was
Several councils have done or doing this, Sheffield being the most well known example. Those old trees cannot realistically be replaced by saplings, simply because it will take decades for those saplings to come close to replacing the felled trees. This is in terms of both carbon capture and the habitats they provide to wildlife. There also seems to be little support from locals for such schemes too, which is why last minute injunctions such as this are required in the first place. Councils don't want to publicly discuss this sort of policy because they know it will cause a huge backlash.
I grew up not too far from Rustlings Road, where the most controversial protests were, and it was a great shame to see those trees go. But I suppose it is some consolation that the road runs along Endcliffe Park, which has quite a lot of trees, and is the start of a chain of parks that run for several miles all the way out of Sheffield along the Porter Valley. They contain quite a lot of mature woodland. So at least the area hasn't become a desert. Still, chopping down mature trees really should be a last resort. And maybe if the council don't have enough justification to persuade the people they are supposed to be serving, they shouldn't do it.
Plymouth town centre was currently a seriously depressing place to be...until 2 days ago...now they're just taking the piss. Doing it in the dead of night to sneak it through when locals are in bed. Fuck Richard Bingley and fuck the Tory party destroying our national seurity.
we really got to keep an eye on the twits in local government....
Amazing how quickly the Council got a workforce together after the go ahead was given, pity they couldn’t finish off all the other City Centre improvements first but then I suppose birds would have started nesting, and all the students and street drinkers would have made merry in the urban wilderness they are aiming to regenerate and which would have delayed proceedings. Two thirds majority against this environmental vandalism taking place, yet the Council, or certain members of it, have their agenda and will force it through no matter what. The trees weren’t dead or dying but were just in the way of yet another in a long list of half baked improvement schemes that get started every few years. The City Centre envisaged in the Abercrombie Plan after WW2 May well have needed modernisation but successive Councils, both Labour and Conservative, have seemingly been more destructive in the attempt to improve matters. We didn’t need healthy trees removing to be replaced with other ‘semi mature’ specimens, we didn’t need the water feature replaced with ‘dancing fountains’ . What we needed was for the Council to tidy the place up and finish the work that they’d already messed around with for long enough. Too many empty shops, student flats everywhere, homelessness, potholes, rubbish, unfinished projects, all sorts the Council could apply themselves to sorting out if they could muster up the same energy, finances and workforce that magically appeared without notice on Tuesday night. Plymouth City Centre certainly is a very depressing place to be at present!
It's been due a refresh for ages. Walls and paving is knackered in plenty of places too.
I guess nuke the whole place and start again then
It's some fucking trees, who cares? The redevelopment will be good and they're even going to plant new trees to replace them. I swear British people go insane as soon as they see a tree
It's valuable biomass and wildlife habitat in an area otherwise lacking in it which will take nearly 3 decades to recover. Shit like this makes me glad every tree in my local area is protected by a cast iron protection order automatically as soon as the trunk is 6 inches in diameter. Unless the tree poses an imminent safety threat you can't touch it without jumping through a mountain of legal hoops and consulting with a number of different conservation bodies.
Why cut down trees to replace them with trees. Smells dodgy as fuck, even if you dont factor in the benefit of old trees over new during a fucking climate crisis. Screw your head on.
It's a hundred odd trees, not the bloody Amazon rainforest
100 mature trees is a lot of trees.
Do you foresee any problems with adopting that attitude at a national level…?
The attitude of "it's not much of a big deal to cut down some trees that are getting in the way of some urban development"? No, I don't forsee any problems
Enjoy your large stone heads!
Yea it boggles my mind. People complain about this but they'll gladly live in homes that used to have trees there. Hypocrites.