Furious residents confront Brent Council officials over tree removal and win some concessions

Chris Whtye, representing Brent Council, confessed that tonight's meeting outside Furness Primary School in Furness Road about the removal of 11 trees, was much bigger than he had anticipated. He was given the unenviable task of both giving the Council's case and responding to questions. Brent Council leader Cllr Muhammed Butt and Lead member for the Environment, stayed silent for the first part of the meeting, leaving Officers to take the brunt of the crowd's passionate criticism of Council policy on removing trees and asphalting of walkways.

Eleven trees were to be removed from Furness Road and Chris told the crowd that five would now stay after review, three would be removed because they were diseased, dead or dying and three would be removed because contractors could find no way of laying the new footway around them.

This did not satisfy the protesters and nor did a further concession that the trees would be replaced by semi-mature plantings rather than saplings. They pointed out the widely different contribution to reducing air pollution made by different sizes of trees and the carbon cost of fossil fuel based asphalt compared with replacing cracked paving. Officers pointed out their duty to protect pedestrians from tripping hazards and falling branches.

The Council were reminded of the battle over asphalting in Chandos Road and the removing of very old specimen trees in Old Paddington Cemetery.

 Cllr Butt, Leader of Brent Council, responds

The meeting did not so much conclude as tail off in a series of arguments with Muhammed Butt furious in certain exchanges. However a cool intervention by Cllr Jumbo Chan won a promise of a properly chaired meeting of residents and the Council in early-January.

It was hard to be absolutely certain in the chaos but I believe the Council undertook to carry out no work in Furness Road until the meeting has taken place.

Brent Council accused of mendacity over trees/paving policy

Salmon Street, NW9 - August 2019

 From an email sent to Brent Council:

RE: Brent Council Announces Climate Emergency And Then Chops Down All The Trees

Are you still insisting we hold a meeting outside in the dark today, at rush hour, before most residents have got home ?

I am unsure exactly what you propose to convey to us with your "brief discussion" in these conditions; we obviously will not be able to see the trees you mention.

Is it your intension to try to confine this discussion only to these remaining eleven trees on Furness Road ?

As you know the systematic destruction of Brent’s wonderful & varied stock of mature trees has been ongoing for a decade. 

Many of us have correspondence with the council going back several years regarding the tragic culling of mature and healthy trees outside our homes.

Amid repeated broken promises of them being replaced, line upon line have been erased from our streets. Furness Road has suffered terribly. And it continues.

We would like them back.

Who is sending these chainsaw gangs around the borough and why?

Similar action by another council in a recent case was described by Michael Gove (then Minister for the Environment) as “Ecological Vandalism’.

At an impromptu gathering outside Furness Rd School last Monday, a council representative claimed that it is Brent Council’s intention to replace ALL paving stones throughout the whole borough with asphalt.

Can you confirm if this is true ?

If so, what volume of asphalt in tonnage is likely to be purchased by the council ? 

I’m sure rough estimates by quantity-surveyors were calculated before such a decision was made.

What calculations regarding carbon offsetting, to cancel-out the use of such a large quantity of petroleum-based bitumen/asphalt have been completed ?

And, how does the felling of thousands, of mature trees help in this offsetting?

Clearly, in spite of recent claims by Brent Council, that they are in some way concerned with the environment, their actions (historic & ongoing), and recent decisions regarding pavements and canopy cover (without consultation) demonstrate the opposite. Indeed, it shows utter contempt.

This amounts to a public relations disaster for Brent Council & current MP, and yet further anger & frustration for the borough’s long-suffering residents.

Finally, I understand Krupa Seth will be attending today.

I do look forward to Counciller Sheth's answers to our previously unanswered questions and outstanding FOI requests sent to her under separate cover.

And a response to the above email from a resident with whom it was shared:

Thank you for an intelligent and insightful email which rightly centres on Brent Councils casual disregard for its tree stock and the profligate waste of money caused by this approach to pavement works, that is compounded by the damaging use of the extensive amounts of a fossil fuel derivative.

Brent Council has a corporate responsibility to reduce the amount of fossil fuel use in the borough – not increase it steadily.

This is for obvious reasons – obvious to everyone else, except the officers of Brent Council.

Brent is fortunate in that it appears to have many intelligent, engaged people who really do care about their borough and the way it is managed – it is deeply shameful that Brent Council continues with its ruinous pursuit of degrading the public realm facilitated by a Council that views its environmental responsibilities as a minor inconvenience.

I see again, the mendacious line trotted out again that a replacement sapling is in anywhere near a reasonable replacement of a mature tree as regards the large environmental benefits provided by a mature tree.

It will take decades for the replacement sapling to reach the same amounts of carbon sequestration, the production of oxygen, reduction in solar gain and the ecological benefits for wildlife.

Anyone with common sense can see the lunacy and ignorance of that statement – any honest arborist would tell you exactly the same thing. 

You would think it should be incumbent for the officers of Brent Council to be aware of this basic fact – this is not a difficult of overly complicated concept.

If not, they are either ignorant or incompetent or just plain dishonest.

This is a borough wide issue regardless of Brent Council's opinion and residents will continue to fight this environmental degradation everywhere in the borough.

How is Mallard Way's asphalt faring 3 years on as policy comes under scrutiny?

Brent Council's justification for asphalt replacing paving - 2016

With the current controversy raging in Mapesbury Conservation Area over the replacement of paving with asphalt I thought it worth checking on the current state of Mallard Way, in Kingsbury NW(, which was asphalted 3 years ago.

For the most part the walkway is smooth although there are some shallow indentations in places which accumulate rainwater. The photos below suggest that there is some cracking beginning and mould/moss. which becomes a slipping hazard in wet or icy weather, is beginning to form in places.

Next to a tree pit

Cracking beginning

Moss/mould

Preston Library Fundraiser Party Sunday December 1st - with the Silvertones

Brave the rain to save the trees - Furness Road, 5pm tonight

Rainy Day With Umbrellas Painting by Natalja Picugina

It is not the best time for an outdoor meeting but residents are expected to gather outside Furness Primary School in Furness Road NW10 at 5pm tonight to meet Brent officers and councillors to try and find a solution to the issue of 11 trees in the street which the Council has scheduled for felling.

The trees on Furness Road from above

As word has got around the community people from elsewhere in Brent have also expressed concern about the fate of trees in their local area.  Pedestrian safety and insurance claims are set against concerns that healthy mature trees that contribute to combating pollution and enrich the urban scene are being lost.

Cllr Michael Pavey resigns - By-election in Barnhill ward in January

Cllrs Butt, Choudhary, Marquis & Pavey

 I had to miss tonight's Council meeting but I understand that a by-election was announced to take place in January 2020 as a result of the resignation of a sitting councillor. The ward is currently held by three Labour councillors - Cllr Shafique Choudhary, Cllr Sarah Marquis and Cllr Michael Pavey. Michael Pavey resigned for personal reasons.

Pavey is a former Deputy Leader of the Council who stood against Cllr Muhammed Butt for the Labour leadership.LINK

The by-election is likely to be held in mid to late-January when two ward electors have asked for an election.

The road to Hell is paved with Brent's good intent (or asphalt)

 

Recent paving in the Barn Hill Conservation area - why not Mapesbury?

A Mapesbury resident who is a retired Civil and Structural Enginer (MIStructE and MICE) has carried out a pavement survey of Dartmouth Road where Brent Council wishes to replace the paving in this Conservation Area road with asphalt.

The survey has been forwarded to the  Council and members of the Mapesbury Residents Association.

The works have been temporarily suspended giving time for  review and it is hoped that in the light of the Council's Climate Emergency Declaration an assessment will be made of the comparative carbon footprint of renewing broken paving compared with taking paving up and replacing with asphalt.

Dartmouth Road Pavement Survey.

Carbon footprint of proposed replacement of paving slabs by asphalt

Date:  20.11.19

This report is based on a detailed survey of the pavements on both sides of Dartmouth Road:

A:  between nos. 103 to 131

B:  between nos. 60 – 92

Which is ¼ of the length of Dartmouth Road.

C:  between nos. 1 – 24.  This last section has recently been repaved and is in excellent order.  See appendix for the survey results for this section.

Pavements are on average 2700 mm. wide and are formed using 600 x 750 and 600 x 600 precast concrete paving slabs. The width consists of two of each size staggered: 

(2 x 750 ) + ( 2 x 600 ) = 2700.

Each property is approx. 10 m wide and so there are theoretically 16 ½ x 4 = 68 slabs per property. But many properties have vehicle crossovers which reduces the number of slabs. The crossovers are either of concrete or block paving construction or a mix of one of these plus paving slabs.  There are also a very few tarmac crossovers.

Where trees occur the paving is extended upto the tree or there is a resin gravel type infill upto the tree, or occasionally tarmac or nothing with the soil visible. Whatever has been installed next to the tree has usually failed in some way and is uneven.  These areas have the most trip hazards.

Concrete and concrete block vehicle crossovers have performed best and are often in good serviceable order. Any area of crossovers that is surfaced with paving slabs is in poor condition with on average over 1 / 3 of the paving slabs cracked.

Good condition slabs .			Cracked slabs .
Between crossovers	At vehicle crossovers	Total	Between crossovers	At crossovers	Total
1540	243	1783	129	72	201
			% of total 129/1540= 8.3 %	% of total 72 / 243= 29.6%
Whole length of Dartmouth Road pro-rata  (i.e. x 132 / 32 )
6350	1000	7350

It can be seen that paved crossovers contribute nearly 4 times the rate of cracking that occurs  in areas between crossovers.

It can also be seen that within crossovers there are 243 – 72 = 171 uncracked slabs which is comfortably more than the 129 cracked slabs within the paved areas between crossovers. So when the defective crossovers are replaced there will be sufficient uncracked slabs recovered to replace all the cracked slabs between the crossovers.

We can extrapolate this detailed survey to the whole of Dartmouth Road because a visual inspection indicates that the area surveyed in detail here is of the same configuration as the whole of Dartmouth Road and the total figures for the whole road are shown in the table. 

The plan proposed by Brent Council is to remove all the paving and replace the crossovers with block paving and to infill between the crossovers using asphalt.

Therefore the number of paving slabs to be removed from between crossovers and dumped is 6350 slabs.  The slabs are 50mm thick

The average weight of a slab is (.6m x .675m x .05m) x 2000 kg / m cube = 40.5 kg

Therefore the weight of slabs to be removed = 6350 x 40.5 / 1000 = 257 tons. These slabs have to be lifted, piled up and then grab loaded onto a lorry and taken to a dump. Such loading will achieve about 10 tons per typical 8 wheel lorry giving rise to 26 lorry movements. And the dumping will attract landfill tax. More seriously, these slabs will remain in landfill unchanged for centuries.

Asphalt requires a well compacted base layer of stone which will have to be imported because the sand / soil / clay found under the existing slabs when lifted will need improvement. 

The area of new asphalt will be the same as the paving removed = 6350 x 0.6 x 0.675 = 2570 m square. 

Allow for a restored formation thickness of 75mm, this will require the removal of 75mm of existing soft material ( to maintain existing levels) and reinstatement using 75 mm of stone material. So the volume of material removed and replaced will be 2 (1 removal and one replacement) x 2570 x 0.075 = 385 m cube = 770 tons. Which at 15 tons per lorry for this type of material gives rise to 51 lorry movements.

The amount of asphalt required if 20mm thick will be 2570 x .02 = 51 m cube = 100 tons at least, requiring another 10 lorry movements.

So the total weight of materials being lifted and moved is 257 + 770 + 100 = 1,127 tons requiring 26 +5 1 + 10 = 87  lorry movements. 

The lorries will have to travel to a dump outside London and the asphalte and stone will have to be brought in from a quarry, also well outside London.  This represents a lot of diesel at 10 mpg! And this is just Dartmouth Road. For the whole of Mapesbury Estate there will be at least 6 x these quantities, i.e nearly 7,000 tons of materials dumped or imported, involving 500 plus lorry movements. 

Furthermore, since Brent plans to change all the pavements in the Borough for asphalt, the quantities will become huge.

It is obvious that the proposed use of asphalt to replace existing slab paving is totally unacceptable on carbon foot print grounds for material handling and transport and the energy intensive manufacture of the asphalt itself, which is a heavy crude oil hydrocarbon based product. Levelling the slabs in situ would have minimal carbon foot print and lead to a pleasing durable solution appropriate for a Conservation Area. 

Appendix:  P

Appendix:

The section of Dartmouth Road between Mapesbury Road and Exeter Road has also been surveyed in detail as follows. This section was re-laid using slabs 5 years ago and is in very good condition and shows how successful slab paving can be when well laid.

Survey on Dartmouth Road between numbers 2 and 14 and the opposite odd numbers side which is in equally good condition
Good condition slabs .			Cracked slabs .
Between crossovers	At crossovers	Total	Between crossovers	At crossovers	Total
1043	No paved crossovers, all are conc. or blocks or tarmac	1043	19 *	No paved crossovers, all are conc. or blocks or tarmac	19
			% of total 19/1043 = 1.8 %		% of total 19/1043 = 1.8 %

About half of these cracked slabs are so finely cracked it is difficult to see the crack because they have not moved having been very well laid.

This table applies to only 15 % of Dartmouth Road and so would not affect the pro-rata totals used above very much and in fact further support the case for retaining all the existing paving in Dartmouth Road.

Brent's Interim Climate Emergency Plan - is it enough?

Monday's Full Council Meeting will be presented with Brent Council's Interim Climate and Ecological Emergency Action Plan. This needs to be seen in the context of the Council declaring a Climate Emergency and the setting up on a Climate Assembly  and the recent  consultation on climate change actions concluded last week. The wider context is of course the global climate crisis and at street level issues such as the Mapesbury asphalting of walkways controversy and the community battle to save mature trees in Furness Road.

The Report going to the Council Meeting sets out the following framework which is elaborated in the Action Plan. There has already been criticism that the detailed actions, whilst welcome, are not sufficiently radical and joined up across the Council and such criticisms are likely to be raised at Wednesday's Round Table meeting at Brent Civic Centre which is discussing a Brent bid to the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. 

Community leadership: As the democratically accountable body, we will provide the necessary leadership on this issue to bring the community together to address this issue with a positive and collaborative agenda, ensuring that the carbon neutral transition is fair for all.

Leading by example as a council: Reducing emissions from our own estate and   operations (corporate properties, vehicle fleet, street lighting/signage), from council housing and from our construction programmes; improving the environmental sustainability of the Council’s procurement of goods and services, reducing our dependence on damaging materials such as single use plastics.

Strategic planning and infrastructure:  Ensuring that environmental sustainability goals are fully integrated in strategic plans such as the Borough Plan, Local Plan, Inclusive Growth Strategy, Housing Strategy, Transport Strategy, Parking Strategy, Waste Strategy, Digital Strategy, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. Creating better recycling, walking and cycling infrastructure; supporting green enterprise and reskilling the workforce; delivering borough-wide decentralised energy schemes including community owned renewable generation.

Partnership: Developing pan-London and cross-borough initiatives where these can improve our impact. Build on existing and create new partnerships with key sectors in Brent including public sector partners, business and industry, energy suppliers, schools, residents’ fora and community groups.

Attracting investment: Ensuring that Brent secures funding from existing and future national and regional programmes for carbon reduction, energy efficiency, waste reduction, air quality, sustainable urban drainage, biodiversity and tree planting.

Enabling: Making it easier for people in Brent to reduce their own impacts, for instance, allocating the Carbon Offset Fund for household, business, school and community carbon reduction initiatives.

Community engagement: Providing direct advice, for instance on recycling, and signposting residents to advice and support from other agencies such as the Energy Saving Trust.

ACTION PLAN (click bottom left for full size version)