Cutting trees down overnight in Plymouth

[Accy cyclist]

Early-hours injunction halts 'despicable' tree felling in Plymouth​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64961358

How very sneaky of them to cut down 110 trees without public knowledge in the middle of the night and it would've been more if they hadn't been stopped! This reminds me of my local council who shot dead a colony of rabbits in the local cemetery in the middle of the night a few years ago, to avoid a confrontation with the likes of me. I would've thought it was illegal to cut down trees with nesting birds in them? 🤔 A councillor of the area it happened in, said on the radio that according to reports the birds were 'frantic' as each tree fell.

https://directree.org/when-is-the-nesting-bird-season/#:~:text=There is no legally defined,and the

There is no legally defined bird nesting season, although the majority of birds tend to nest typically between the beginning of March and the beginning of August*. However, it is important to remember that the timing of the nesting season varies greatly depending on several factors such as the weather conditions in any given year and from one bird species to another. This means that while nesting birds are more common between March and August, birds will be nesting outside of this window. Regardless of the month, it is still illegal to disturb nesting birds.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Somewhat like the incidents in Sheffield with clandestine felling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_tree_felling_protests

It came back to bite the council in the end, but even so, nothing can bring back those trees.

 

[HMS_Dave]

The renovation project in my opinion looks ghastly. Looks totally unnatural, artificial and a bit downtown American. Not sure what the Plymothians think about it all...

 

[raleighnut]

Dreadful

 

[Dave 123]

The Drake Circus shopping mall opened in 2006 and nailed the rest of the city centre, so the whole place has the feeling of a ghost town. It certainly does need some regeneration.

Having said that the trees could have been selectively thinned. Some of the birch were long in the tooth and maybe weren’t looking too ornamental. But other than that, pollarding and crown reduction could have been the way forward. This would have given the place a spring clean whilst leaving a bit of maturity.

Plymouth was a victim of the Blitz and the 1950’s architecture is a bit stark that would have benefited from some bigger trees. Some have apparently been left, but sadly not enough.

 

[biggs682]

Here in Wellingborough quite a few old lime trees have recently been felled to make way for a new road that needs building to feed a big housing development on that side of town.

Plans were released about 10 years ago and I don't remember anybody protesting but the day they started chopping they started protesting but a lot of the trees have gone but they stopped and the remaining trees have a short respite period.

I think this is the right link https://www.northantstelegraph.co.u...rrister-casts-doubt-on-clearance-work-4043059

 

[tom73]

Somewhat like the incidents in Sheffield with clandestine felling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_tree_felling_protests

It came back to bite the council in the end, but even so, nothing can bring back those trees.

That's only the basic sanitised facts. It was and now has been proved to have been totally target led , a council that mislead the court, put pressure on police to arrest people. Inc a women who's only crime was blowing a plastic trumpet. They threatened people with risk of court action and loss of homes to pay the bills. Even now the council are just playing lip service to the official report findings. Prominent members of council responsible are still in post one is now the council leader.

 

[Electric_Andy]

As mentioned before, Drakes Circus shopping centre (top of city centre) has drawn all of the big business to the top of the high street. The lower end and middle (which is where the trees are being felled) has been dying for years; everyone who can afford to has moved towards the top to get more footfall, and the lower end of high street is derelict and shoddy.

The main strip from the railway station to Plymouth Hoe is being planted with 160 odd new trees in a bid to spruce up tourist thoroughfares but I don't think it will do anything for the out of season health of the city. So as usual it's all a vanity project with not much thought gone into it. It would have been better if they pressure washed all of the buildings and lowered the rent so that smaller (i.e. non-chain) businesses could thrive, but this is literally just new trees in an area notorious for antisocial behaviour and drug use.

 

[Jody]

Somewhat like the incidents in Sheffield with clandestine felling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_tree_felling_protests

It came back to bite the council in the end, but even so, nothing can bring back those trees.

Disgusting what went on here. Par for the course with SCC

 

[Beebo]

My parents village had a big protest some years ago about tree felling.
The area did look pretty bad for a year or so bit nature did what nature does and the area now is a huge improvement.
So the protestors aren’t always right.

 

[T4tomo]

As mentioned before, Drakes Circus shopping centre (top of city centre) has drawn all of the big business to the top of the high street. The lower end and middle (which is where the trees are being felled) has been dying for years; everyone who can afford to has moved towards the top to get more footfall, and the lower end of high street is derelict and shoddy.

The main strip from the railway station to Plymouth Hoe is being planted with 160 odd new trees in a bid to spruce up tourist thoroughfares but I don't think it will do anything for the out of season health of the city. So as usual it's all a vanity project with not much thought gone into it. It would have been better if they pressure washed all of the buildings and lowered the rent so that smaller (i.e. non-chain) businesses could thrive, but this is literally just new trees in an area notorious for antisocial behaviour and drug use.

It appears they are taking down mature trees to make it easier to do the ground works and then replacing them with less mature trees in slightly different places to keep the "architect" happy. I'm sure it would have been possible to work with most what was there tree-wise although almost certainly more expensive as it takes longer to work around stuff than crack on with a blank canvas.

 

[All uphill]

I can see another side to this story.

As has been said these parts of Plymouth have been looking increasingly sad for years. I welcome the plan to make the area more inviting to people strolling, having a coffee and even cycling.

It makes sense to cut down large unhealthy silver birch when the area has few people around - nighttime.

I agree that homelessness is a huge problem in Plymouth and I hope/wish the council and national government will urgently create a constructive plan to support people into healthier lifestyles - but I'm not optimistic.

 

[tom73]

The big issue with most mass tree planting is often ones planted are poor quality, lack bio diversity, non native and imported on mass.
Bringing an increased risk of new plant diseases and pests. The last few years have seen a record number of new imported diseases and pests. Woodland "climate change planting on mass by tick box" is even worse with whips being used and just left. Most fail and what's left never really are up to the job.

 

[Spokesmann]

Been on the cards for ages, everyone should know that, the regeneration is much needed, an awful lot of media noise from so many not in full possession of the facts. Putting it bluntly you can't make an omelette with breaking a few eggs, there is so, so much more to this than is being reported, yes it looks bad, but wait until you see the results. There seems to be a very vocal amount of people/groups and media against this, but I can assure you there is an awful lot of support for this, especially from local businesses. So many wading into this not really knowing the area, the background to this scheme and without the correct information/full facts. Yes, I live in Plymouth and I cycle past this site every day on my commute into work. It's got to the point whereby some officials now have received death threats, this is unacceptable. Think before you wade in. I'm saying no more.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Round here there started chopping down tress a few years ago

Lots of people moaning on forums and stuff

I decided to ask why and emailed the local counsellor - turned out that the tress were planted man years ago and they were not really suitable for public areas
This particular type of tree is notorious for growing perfectly happily for a certain amount of time - then randomly start dropping branches with no warning.
One of two of then had dropped branches near a local nursery - one nearly hit a person with a kid in a pushchair - so the counsel tree people decided it was time to get rid of them before someon got him or one dropped on the road causing a vehicele to swerve and cause an accident.

Turns out that the counsel has a policy of chopping down trees when necessary - but replacing every one with 2 more - and to use more natural (for the area) species.
however, they did have to leave the replanting for over 6 months for the ground to stabilise
But once that time was up then the new trees were planted
Apparently the extra ones have been planted in other parts of the town where there were fewer trees in the past.

Sometime th ecounsel are just being idiots - but sometimes they have good reasons
Best thing would seem to be to persuade then to have the right policies in place before anything happens!!