Critics slam felling Victoria Circus tree (From Echo)
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Critics slam felling Victoria Circus tree
3:10pm Wednesday 11th August 2010 in
OPPOSITION politicians have been horrified by the removal of the last tree from Victoria Circus roundabout in Southend.
After 22 trees were removed in January for the £7million Victoria Gateway scheme, the remaining tree was felled by contractors at 4am on Monday.
Tory council leader Nigel Holdcroft said the authority had wanted to keep it, but it would have cost £1million as it would have disrupted BT cables.
It also would have meant the project would miss a key deadline and the council could lose another £2million of Government funding.
Ric Morgan, Lib Dem councillor for Prittlewell, said: “We are horrified to see all the trees cut down.
“We lost 22 trees on the first raid in the winter.
“To us and to many people in the town, it could look as if the council is doing things in an underhand way.
“They haven’t consulted properly, which is an ongoing problem, and we’ve lost lots of trees.
“Couldn’t the design for the Victoria Gateway project have been adapted so some of these trees could have been saved?”
When asked what he would do faced with the possibility of losing millions of pounds over one tree, Mr Morgan said he was sceptical about the figures.
He said: “I find these large amounts of money being mentioned very strange.
“How could leaving the tree there mean interrupting or rerouting all these cables? It’s very peculiar.”
Mike Royston, the former Labour councillor for St Luke’s ward, tried to have a tree preservation order placed on the tree at a meeting in February.
He said: “I’m really angry.
“At the council meeting, I expressed my anger to councillor Anna Waite and sought assurances the last remaining tree would be protected. But she refused to give them.
“I said then I felt the council and the public had been hoodwinked.”
Ron Woodley, Independent Thorpe councillor, said he was angry opposition councillors had not been involved in the decision.
Comments(24)
gordonbennet
says...
3:59pm Wed 11 Aug 10
leighbloke
says...
4:19pm Wed 11 Aug 10
No worries though Southend will elect the Tories next year just as they always do.
j-w
says...
4:37pm Wed 11 Aug 10
No worries though Southend will elect the Tories next year just as they always do.= Majority happy with SBC trying to improve town.
emcee
says...
5:22pm Wed 11 Aug 10
It also would have meant the project would miss a key deadline and the council could lose another £2million of Government funding".
-
OK so why was this not known about at the begining, during the planning and consultation. Answers on a postcard to all Southend residents please Mr Holdcroft.
Sensible Man
says...
6:04pm Wed 11 Aug 10
I will stick with the Conservatives for now - but do Chainsaw and her friends have any idea how horrible their anti-environmenatal acts make them look?
Shocking and disgusting.
'V'
says...
6:22pm Wed 11 Aug 10
firedog
says...
7:10pm Wed 11 Aug 10
Sensible Man
says...
7:24pm Wed 11 Aug 10
gitreal
says...
7:53pm Wed 11 Aug 10
I think they meant to say underhanded which is exactly what it was/
Kiss ars£
firedog
says...
7:58pm Wed 11 Aug 10
jayman
says...
9:33pm Wed 11 Aug 10
firedog wrote:nope.. we pulled ourselves out of the dark ages several hundred years ago and now live in a society. you are probably referring to disasters in country's where elected officials and rulers don't care about the people they represent. in our country if our environment is changed beyond reason or destroyed we have a right to complain as we live in a civil society.
It would seem you only care about yourself,a disaster in your life would have you running around demanding help from everyone.
vanilla ice
says...
9:36pm Wed 11 Aug 10
firedog wrote:Who are you to make assumptions as to what other people care about? They care about the things in their lives that they feel are important to them, and in case you haven’t noticed, our make ups are all different, and if they want to care about the destruction of trees or to whatever other issues they feel are wrong, that’s their business, it might not be high on your list of priorities but it is to them, and it doesn’t mean they are indifferent to the problems of the world. I personally won’t give to countries that prop up corrupt Governments and Swiss bank accounts, but if you won’t to that your privilege. And perhaps instead of moaning on this forum about other people lack of care you got yourself off to the country that is of concern to you, once there you could give them some hands on help, and it would give you a better perspective of the scale of the problem for which to lecture us on. PS, Have a safe journey.
It would seem you only care about yourself,a disaster in your life would have you running around demanding help from everyone.
paul.d.
says...
9:44pm Wed 11 Aug 10
BASILBRUSH
says...
9:56pm Wed 11 Aug 10
I also agree with Paul.d :)
vanilla ice
says...
11:12pm Wed 11 Aug 10
BASILBRUSH wrote:Stop it Basil, you are awful, you have made me go all weak at the knees; I’ll have to go and have a lie down.
For once I agree with Vanilla ice's post.
I also agree with Paul.d :)
southendreb
says...
7:50am Thu 12 Aug 10
paul.d. wrote:I thought we were paying a lady 600 pounds a day to sort this nonsense out. Can someone please tell me if the cables are already under the tree. If so what would have happened if the rounderbout had been kept. I think we a being fed a load of rubbish again .
Its a tree FFS get over it
Tom from Southend
says...
1:31pm Thu 12 Aug 10
NickS
says...
5:13pm Thu 12 Aug 10
j-w
says...
8:08pm Thu 12 Aug 10
'V'
says...
8:32pm Thu 12 Aug 10
NickS wrote:Does that include all the dead furry sticks they stuck in the seafront?
Has anyone noticed that conveniently all those that are devastated, sick or moaning about the “cold blooded slaughter” of a tree have all failed to mention the fact that the council implemented a Two for One policy where they plant two trees for every one tree that was cut down thus doubling the number of trees.
NickS
says...
10:59pm Thu 12 Aug 10
'V' wrote:Thats the thing they are NOT all dead, whilst some are poorly others are doing well and taking root.
NickS wrote: Has anyone noticed that conveniently all those that are devastated, sick or moaning about the “cold blooded slaughter” of a tree have all failed to mention the fact that the council implemented a Two for One policy where they plant two trees for every one tree that was cut down thus doubling the number of trees.Does that include all the dead furry sticks they stuck in the seafront?
You cant expect to plant a tree and have it start rooting immediately it can take many months for them to settle in to their new geological environment.
firedog
says...
5:13pm Fri 13 Aug 10
j-w
says...
3:45pm Sun 15 Aug 10
I recommend this facebook page to all.
A real hoot!
http://www.facebook.
com/pages/Saxon-King
-In-Priory-Park/1815
02578346?ref=search&
sid=1200009637.40286
91558..1
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Peter Pantsless says...
3:26pm Wed 11 Aug 10
I think the penny has finally dropped that he's now public enemy number one!
No wonder she didnt put up much of a fight, she must've realised how much permanemt damage she'd done to the borough.
Holdcroft was in a no win situation: keep Waite in her role and keep losing tory support or demote her and take the flack himself!