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| Monday March 18th 9.45am |
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| Monday March 18th 17.45pm |
Spot the difference
We woke up today with all the
zest of a spring Monday morning. The sun was even shining! I was quickly jolted
out of this humour when I looked across from our garden to see that the tree
surgeons were at our neighbours’ across the canal. But even then I thought, ‘no,
they couldn’t possibly be cutting down those trees’.
My partner Atul and I are
writing this with much regret and anger. Along our part of the Grand Union
Canal, we have already experienced the cutting down of healthy and lovely trees
with little regard to the thoughts and feelings of the residents.
Last year, the beautiful willow
tree was cut down without notice. The people who live here had no opportunity
to object.
This morning, Strong’s
Printing of Berkhamsted are cutting down the three trees outside their office
(opposite our home). Again, there was no consultation of the residents living
nearby. The two photographs above show ‘Before’ and ‘After’, or 9.45 am and 5.45
pm. It’s winter now and the visual impact will be much greater come the summer
months.
We don’t object to progress, but
we do object to inconsiderate behavior, and we fail to understand why the local
council did not notify the neighbours in this case. They do if it’s a building
going up, but not if it’s a tree coming down. In fact, this site was the subject
of a change of use and planning application recently, which was being considered
with a stipulation that the trees stay in place!
What we have learned today is
that if you want to try to keep trees safe you must get a tree preservation
order, but you should do this before you see the chainsaws. We are writing this
with the hope you will forward it to others, and hopefully it might help
somebody out there from experiencing what we have today.
Technically speaking,
Strong’s might be within their rights. However, as I write they have packed up for
the evening and gone home – and we that live here are left with the results
of their destruction.
What a shame. It seems that manipulation of the planning system is truly an example of the dark arts.
ReplyDeleteTrees gone. Planning application goes ahead without the problem of the trees! Looks like some sneaky behind the scenes activity. Apparently property developers do this all the time. Told they have to develop the area with the trees in mind. Suddenly they disappear and obviously can't be replaced and the problem is solved. They possibly pay a small fine but nothing compared to the extra profits they will make without the trees.
ReplyDeleteThanks both of you for your comments and to everybody that has read this blog. They had a permit to cut them down however it looks like a massacre, permit or not. They refused to talk to us and never informed us which would have been the neighbourly thing to do. They could have pollarded them instead? There are always options but it requires communication and consideration. I even had two print jobs done with them last week so they had all the opportunities... needless to say I will never use their service again and I will never encourage or recommend others which I used to.
ReplyDeleteGoing forward and being more positive, I have since learned we could have had a tree preservation order (TPO) put on them however we did not realise and we certainly did not anticipate such disregard for nature. So if there are some nice trees in your area and you would like them to stay – check if they have a TPO on them and if not, contact your council tree officer and ask him/her to do a visit. It will save you the shock and horror of our experience last Monday.