Showing posts with label Carlton Avenue East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carlton Avenue East. Show all posts

Monday 16 August 2021

Eulogy for a dead tree - killed by Brent Council

Tree surgeons at work in Carlton Avenue East

 Guest post by local resident L. Green

 

Last Monday a team of tree 'surgeons’ employed or commissioned by the Council came to Carlton Avenue East and began to demolish a beautiful and sturdy lime tree, one of the many that have lined both sides of this street for eighty odd years.

 


There was a small amount of fungus growing at the bottom; perhaps someone had complained, but the trunk was sound and the branches decked with as many leaves as all the neighbouring trees. A walk through most woodland will reveal similar fungus growing all over the place.

 


Early pictures of the street, from Brent Archives, show the newish houses with the recently planted trees in neat rows on both sides. The same view appears in the 1950's Terry Thomas film 'Too Many Crooks', shot in the area and screened at Preston Community Library in 2017.

 



When the Preston Park Estate was built in the 1920s and 1930s, tree lined avenues were clearly part of the overall vision for the development. Now in a period of great anxiety about climate change, we watch as trees are destroyed with few seeming to care. 


When I moved to this area in the 1990s I used to delight in walking along neighbouring Longfield Avenue. It was lined with a row of glorious Maples, which turned bright red and gold each Autumn. There was also cherry tree with deep pink blossom each spring. Now the Maples and the cherry have all gone, and there are only two trees left in the street, which is greatly diminished as a result. In adjoining Glendale Gardens most of the trees have gone, at least two have gone from Grasmere and in the last fortnight a tree has suddenly disappeared from the roundabout where Windermere Avenue joins Grasmere. All this devastation in just four streets - Is this typical of the whole of Brent, just how many trees have gone? Should we be mapping them?


In 2019 the Greater London Authority provided thousands of trees for Londoners to plant in their communities, and SKPPRA, the local residents' association duly organised a planting in Preston Park. However it seems likely that in this area at least, for every tree planted more than one has gone. The R number for trees is over 1!


Clearly there will be some occasions when a tree genuinely has to go. In Montpelier Rise there is a leafless tree that is as ex as the proverbial dead parrot, though unusually there is no demolition notice posted on its trunk. However, there should be a proper programme of replacement for all trees cut down, and a decent notice period when any tree is endangered, so that local people can respond when the destruction is unjustified.


Trees contribute so much to our environment - not just to the attractiveness of the street scene and as homes for birds and other wildlife, but to our safety. A neighbour had a large weeping willow in her garden which recently died. Now her garden floods more in storms, because the willow was drinking up water from the saturated ground. 


We need a programme of tree planting in our streets and parks, to both replace what has already been lost and to increase the overall number. There are plenty of local sites where trees could be planted. In Carlton Avenue East the rhythm of the planting will be spoilt by the absence of the cut down tree, and a similar tree needs to be installed as a replacement. The Borough needs to increase the number of trees, to play it's part in improving our environment and fighting climate change.

Monday 20 April 2015

Preston Community Library now operating temporarily from library site after 3 year closure



From the Preston Library Campaign

Last week Preston Community Library signed a licence to use the Preston Library building until the end of July, so after a gap of nearly four years there is again a public library in Carlton Avenue East. There are already books available to borrow. The creative writing and Scrabble groups which we've been running for some time will continue, and there will be an immediate expansion of our English classes. Other activities planned for the very near future include a film club and yoga and knitting classes.

For the moment we're opening from 12.30 - 7 on Mondays and from 11-5 on Saturdays. We hope to expand the opening hours very soon; to do that we need more volunteers to staff the building, so if you can spare some time please do get in touch. or.

We have a couple of events coming up very soon. This Thursday, 23 April is World Book Night 2015, and we will be giving away books in the library from 4 until 7; there will also be readings from Shakespeare, whose birthday it is. There are more details on the attached poster.

And on Monday week, 27 April, we have our next pub quiz at 7.30 in The Preston pub. We aim to start the quiz promptly at 8. This year's quizzes have been as enjoyable as ever and very well attended. Now that we're back in the library we need your support more than ever, so I hope to see as many of you as possible at both of these events.

Thanks for your continuing support.