Last week when I passed a tree maintenance vehicle parked on Kings Drive, Wembley Park, I though they were there to reduce the size of the rather magnificent pair of trees in the corner of the Lycée (formerly Brent Town Hall/Wembley Town Hall) grounds. A day later I was shocked to see they were completely gone.
The trees had been there for decades and were a local landmark, lately contrasting with the Quintain tower blocks on the horizon.
We are lucky to have a good number of mature trees in this part of Wembley Park with trees preserved in the grounds of King's Court and Carmel Court (on the right in above picture) and on the Kings Drive-Pilgrims Way council estate further up the hill.
Lately, we have lost the wonderful willow on Greenhill Way. This followed another willow lost on The Paddocks side of the Lycée grounds some time ago, perhaps through storm damage.
Greenhill Way willow
Lycée willow
The 'after' photographs of these sites present a forlorn picture:
King's Drive
Greenhill Way
The Lycée King's Drive willow before removal
I asked the Lycée for a statement about the felling this morning, particularly given their participation in eco-schools and commitment to bio-diversity.
Notice on the Forty Lane gardens, near the bus stop
They kindly responded promptly:
Urban trees are being increasingly recognised for the many benefits they provide, such as removing carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, providing habitats for wildlife, and making our urban areas more attractive, enjoyable and healthy places to live and spend time in. To help manage and understand this important resource, Trees for Cities, Brillianto, Woodland Trust and Forest Research have hosted a citizen science project to map the canopy cover of towns and cities across the England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Contributors have helped to build this canopy cover map for the UK by measuring the canopy cover across the UK.
This map section with the Lycée at the foot of the image and King's Drive at the top gave a tree canopy estimate of 17.9%, better than the average, but lost trees will need to be replaced by a number of smaller trees given the canopy size of mature trees and the time need for replacements to reach maturity.
Canopy of the Greenhill Way willow (Google Earth)
Canopies of the King's Drive trees
Responding to a request for a statement on the issue Brent Council's Principal Tree Officer said:
I can advise that the original planning application 13/1995 did have a condition relating to tree protection, and a subsequent application 14/0315 was discharged relating to tree protection, however this was only relevant for the period of the development of the site and for a period of five years following the development of the site.
Any longer term tree protection would only be afforded to the trees if they were protected by a Tree Preservation Order and I can advise that no Tree Preservation Order appears to have been made.
Another mature tree in the Lycée International de Londres grounds, can it be protected?
25 comments:
What a joke - the school and Brent Council spout all these eco promises but do the absolute opposite.
None of them have a clue re how important those trees were for wildlife habitat.
Why are Brent Friends of the Earth not doing more to educate the school and Brent Council re environmental impacts and actively ensuring mature trees are listed? They are supposed to be thr environmental experts.
And why are the school putting down fake grass???? It's dreadful for the environment.
Good for Weblmbley Matters. An important issue.
Lots of people make claims to environmentalism but only when it’s convenient
Where are the residents associations
Brent Friends of the Earth are now working with and members of Canopy Tree Campaign - Lawyers for Nature are key members
https://canopy.org.uk/ Stopping some dubious / tenuous Insurance claims implicating trees that may well not be causing the main issues and finding workable solutions ,in some cases, can save some of these mature trees that are implicated in subsidence claims.
Too all those individuals and groups who care about tree - Join Canopy and support trees in Brent and across UK.
Thank you Wembley Matters for noting two very important issues, loss of those trees and criminal installation of artificial grass which is seriously damaging to the environment and should be taxed!
So which trees in Brent have been listed as part of this collaboration?
Can't see any mention of Brent or Brent Friends of the earth or Brent trees on the Canopy website? Can you advise what they've actually done here in Brent?
What a shame that what was a green and pleasant Wembley Park is now becoming just another concrete jungle
Loss of front gardens to turn into a concrete drive with zero drainage is a major factor as well. At least when people lay artificial grass they usually have flower beds surrounding it.
Wembley needs all the help it can get from tree protection so we must protect the trees.
Veteran trees of complex habitats= re-developer nightmare wastes of space. Developers have not declared a Climate Emergency and nor has the UK Government at National level.
Why not have proper grass?
Is anyone going to answer this question?
Not yet uploaded by the team both have email confirmation + missed your q
Huge problem. Everyone check TPO limitations developers can get them removed. Canopy have only just started out collaboration is 3 ,weeks ago. Brent Friends of the EarthTree Group information Brent Parks Forum also started the membership process -waiting for Canopy volunteer admin to upload.
Developers sure have not declared a Climate Emergency
Collaboration ,is a few weeks old. TPOs. Flagged to previous tree officer by a concerned BFoE member and agreed but just discovered it was mot implemented before the officer left. Now being instated. Canopy provide lobbying guidance and enable groups to save trees where possible.
Brent Trees based in Harlesden ceased 4 years ago due to health issues of main organiser. This is a new collective emerging with Brent Friends of the Earth.
BFoE are now members - Upload to the Members section will be updated by Canopy Admin. in the next cycle. Nothing will show up yet on the Canopy website. Canopy is a National campaign and started in Haringey. Do join and support your local areas. Mutually HELP by:
1. Watching Out for tree damage
2. Report to Brent Council -
Gary Rimmer for street tree damage.
Brent Parks for Parks tree damage.
NB The Parks Department does not have a log of all its Parks Trees - Only Gladstone Pk and Barham shared from Brent so far from the Borough Ecologist which needs updating. Many Parks do not have an updated log of their trees (some will have died). Brent has a hedgerow and veteran tree log which was an extensive from the borough ecologist. We hope to be allowed to update that log next year with groups across Brent. WATCH THIS SPACE>
'Brent Save Our Trees' formed in Harlesden, disbanded, BFoE are forming a dedicated Tree group - and have joined Canopy. They need more support, 1 or 2 people with heavy commitments cannot carry this for the whole of Brent. Groups will need to join in.
Mapping Brent's Trees: 490 were mapped - by the Parks Forum - the Tree App site has now closed removing all the uploads. We now have Brent's own hedgerows and ancient tree map which we have transferred to a Google doc with a map - so that anyone can use it to map their areas for spring / summer 2025. We use a Google Docs Spread Sheet - which Queens Park also uses for their street trees.
TPOs: BFoE has met with the new tree officer which has prompted the Tree Group of BFoE to form. Brent has shared their maps and TPOS with us. We were informed by the officer that TPOs can be revoked due to insurance and planning, this correlates with the Forestry Commission course that we attended that stated the same. So TPO's only have limited protection, listing trees does not protect them. Hence Canopy lobbying to change insurance designation for 'implicated' trees - and protection laws at source for the whole of the UK.
Why so late - you preach about climate change but take no proactive action earlier?
Why weren't you all joined up before to protect the our vital green environment - developments here have been going on for years - we've lost track of how many beautiful mature trees that have been lost already.
In answer to: Why weren't you all joined up before to protect the our vital green environment - developments here have been going on for years - we've lost track of how many beautiful mature trees that have been lost already.
They were - but the Tree Group disbanded due to health issues of the main organisers. (Repeated in a previous post), you probably missed it.
Canopy formed a little while ago out of Haringey and reached out to Friends Groups last month; BFoE have been joined up with Fossil Fuel issues and groups - Climate Emergency. Parks Group formed then started to link with groups.
The more people want to offer their time to Tree Watch in their areas the better. That will Save the Trees both individually road by road and collectively.
We will be forming the BFoE Tree Group and all welcome to put in hours of their time to save trees, please consider doing so or care for the trees in your area, join Canopy and learn how to do so. Enable your areas now.
Join in saving your own trees in your areas.
In Answer to: Why so late - you preach about climate change but take no proactive action earlier?
Friends of the Earth have been working on Tree stats for a few years now and providing data for groups to work on. Brent FoE now have just about enough volunteer on the committee to undertake more work. They take on each aspect carefully - and many students appear and then go again leaving the group to manage the most urgent Climate Change lobbying for divesting in Fossil Fuels, and lowering carbon. Join and help save trees. Inaugural meeting will be announced on WM as well as on the BFoE website. Do join and put in the hours it takes to make this happen, watch your streets in your areas, join 'Canopy' that has just formed Nationally out of Haringey's campaign. All people who start small and slowly build.
Answer to: So which trees in Brent have been listed as part of this collaboration?
Collaboration is new. Canopy relatively new Nationally. See answer to other questions.
Brent Trees Disbanded.
Trees have been listed by individuals who are now starting the BFoE Tree Group as well as other groups across Brent asking for TPOs. TPOs cannot be put on parks trees, on private land unless the landowner instigates / agrees to it. Can be worked in to planning but can then be revoked relatively easily due to insurance issues and further planning.
TPOs designation and protection is limited, a removed tree will be replaced by the number of trees, according to the value of the removed tree (Biodiversity Net Gain). It's what we have got in Law and it is limited, the whole system is weighted in favour of the developer in UK. Each tree saved is a victory and Canopy are winning and sharing their knowledge with individuals and groups to save more. Each case won builds case Law its slow and yes 'the Law is an ass', cumbersome, as in slow to have an effect.
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