Public meeting on Brent trees policy: January 15th Newman Catholic College

After the passion and rage of the recent outdoor meeting LINK about the Furness Road trees the community is coming together for a public meeting with Brent councillors and officers on the 15th January 2020 to discuss tree policy.

The meeting will be held at Newman Catholic College, Harlesden Road, Willesden, NW10 3RN from 7pm - 8pm.

Concerns about the felling of street trees is not an issue confined to Furness Road or even to Brent. These documents from Sheffield that emerged from mediation between the City Council, the contractor Amey and the Sheffield trees Action Group (STAG) may be of interest to those seeking a balanced solution.

Click bottom right corner for full page.

Fury over trees 'hacked down' in South Way, Wembley

I have received a message from a local resident about the destruction of trees on South Way, Wembley. The heartfelt email speaks for itself so I have published it below:

Following on from your piece about the concrete jungle Brent Council are creating LINK  we went to Wembley Stadium last week and these huge beautiful trees in South Way (see screen grab above) along the side of Mahatma Gandhi house development site were still there - last night we walked past and they had all been hacked down, I was so shocked and infuriated, I simply could not believe what I was seeing!!!

First question is - why were they hacked down?  They appear to be on the pavement as they are in line with the road sign?  Several other beautiful trees which were within the blue hoardings were cut down late last year/earlier this year - the developers managed to demolish the whole of Mahatma Ghandi house without cutting down these trees outside the blue hoardings so why have they cut them down now?  

Second question is  - isn't this illegal during nesting season?

Third question is  - when are Brent Council going to stop the total obliteration of anything green in Brent? 

They have this on Brent Council website asking for Community Air Quality Champions LINK and then the let the developers oversee the removal of these beautiful trees during the nesting season.

The destruction of these valuable trees comes on top of all the trees they allowed developers to hack down on Olympic Way and at the Brent House development site too - also 4 trees on the traffic island which were removed by the road was dug up for the sewer works.

I have been trying to get Brent to confirm how many trees they have cut down in our Wembley Central and Alperton wards in the past 2 years - I have a list of 134 trees but they sent me a list of just 23 trees which is totally inaccurate - they have no idea what they are doing or what their contractors and the developers are doing.

Please raise this issue re the loss of more trees.

https://www.trees.org.uk/Help-Advice/Public/When-is-the-bird-nest-season

https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/ask-an-expert/previous/treefelling.aspx

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wild-birds-surveys-and-mitigation-for-development-projects

https://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/Dandy_Marzano_Stewart_Moseley_Lawrence_2012_ICF_Street_Trees.pdf/$FILE/Dandy_Marzano_Stewart_Moseley_Lawrence_2012_ICF_Street_Trees.pdf

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/22_benefits_208084_7.pdf

Greens challenge tree felling in Gladstone Park

The Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Brent Central, Shaka Lish, has challenged Brent Council about the felling of trees in Gladstone Park.

Accusing Brent Council of an act of 'wilful vandalism' she asked, 'What is the point of cutting down our beautiful, healthy, ancient trees?' She asked if the Council had any plans to replace them.

At the recent Brent Clean Air meeting at the Civic Centre, Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt, extolled the benefits of trees to combat air pollution but a closer examination shows this may be no more than hot air.

A Freedom of Information request by Wembley Matters LINK established that Brent Council keeps no records of trees lost, felled and replaced in its parks and that none of the 62 trees removed on Brent Housing Partnership estates Jan 1st-Dec 31st 2016 had been replaced.

Parks maintenance is contracted  out to Veolia as part of the Public Realm contract and Gristwood and Toms is contracted to deal with trees over a specific height.

It's ironic given all the above that Brent Council has received a Forestry Commission London's Trees and Woodland Award LINK:

Borough Tree Award - Brent Council Tree Planting Project, Sudbury Town, Barn Hill, Harlesden and Kensal Green 

The Trees and Development Award: Wembley Park – Arena Square and Wembley Park Boulevard.  Market Square (meantime planting). Quintain, London Borough of Brent