The Green candidate in Brent Central is trying to stir up controversy around street trees in Brent. Frankly he seems to me to be coming quite late to the issue, and from a narrow point of view.
Firstly he is talking about a handful of trees when the Borough has many thousands. Each year a few hundred are lost to disease, age, storm damage, accidents and building works. Where they are lost to building works, Brent has a policy of always replacing them as closely near by as possible.
There are a number of schemes to pay for replacement plantings, as well as in new developments such as the redevelopment of Harlesden Town Centre. Nonetheless, they sometimes need to be replaced for safety or insurance reasons. The Greens talk simply of trees as a kind of carbon capture, which they are. Yet it would be nice if their role in flood control, air quality, mitigation against rising temperatures and enhancing the "livability" of streets was also acknowledged.
As always the value of the trees has to be considered along side other needs such as ensuring that the pavements are walkable.
1 comment:
Hello. I am the Green Party Candidate, and my name is William Relton. My comment was rather more about the poor timing of this, coming so soon after the Climate Emergency Declaration. I am fully aware of the many trees that Brent has, I have been a resident for over 30 years, but we could always do with more. I applaud, for example, the work done by Willesden Green Residents Association who are planting 175 trees in the next few months. However, we need more trees, not just in Brent but across the whole country, and to dismiss these specific trees as a mere handful is slightly missing the point I feel. Each tree is a precious resource and should be treated as such.
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