Only one in 50 of our new trees will survive (From Echo)

Only one in 50 of our new trees will survive

1:20pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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Ahmad Khwaja’s defence of Southend Council’s decision to remove the mature trees at Cuckoo Corner sounded very convincing (Mar 2), and I am certain a lot of people will be wondering what the fuss is about, but he is missing the point.

Many of these trees are hundreds of years old.

During the 30 years I have lived in Essex, I have seen the sad destruction of many of the area’s mature trees and, even if the council was to plant ten trees for every one it felled, there would still be fewer trees here in 100 years time.

The problem is that it is not easy to grow a tree that will survive to become anywhere near as impressive as the ones to be felled.

You only need to consider the trees planted over the last 30 years on the Cliff Gardens to see what I mean. Most have died and the majority of those that survived are sick and puny.

I suspect less than one in 50 of the trees planted now will survive for 200 years.

The gardeners in the 1700s and 1800s who left us the legacy of these magnificent trees did so for future generations, knowing they would not live to appreciate them themselves.

It is tremendously sad, therefore, that those in authority seem ignorant of the huge benefit these trees give to the area.

I fear Southend will continue to become an uglier place unless something can be done to stop the destruction.

Nick Beach
Falbro Crescent
Hadleigh

...A correspondent recently stated “a tree is just that, a tree. It expects to be felled ...” Trees don’t expect anything. They just stand and grow if left alone to do so. It is we humans who have the expectations, those of being surrounded by air fit to breathe and of living in pleasant surroundings.

Making our air fit to breathe is what trees do as well as greening and beautifying our little corner of these islands.

However, it seems our expectations are to be dashed with the proposed felling of the trees along Priory Crescent and the widening of the road.

The green will be stripped out in favour of a scheme which, we are told, we can expect to solve all our traffic problems but which, in practice, will do nothing of the kind.

The pleasing aspect the trees give to the road will be lost, as will any benefit they afford in terms of air quality, the shade they provide on hot days and the shelter they give on bad ones. All to the advantage of an unnamed few.

Perhaps we should all learn a lesson from the trees. Expect nothing!

Nancy Denney
Glenhunt Road
Southend

...Having visited the protest camp at Cuckoo Corner and spoken to the protesters, I have to say they are nothing like I imagined from the impression given.

They are mainly professional, family-oriented people who are sacrificing their time and a good night’s sleep to try to preserve our environment and stop the council concreting over more of our town.

The point of the camp is to maintain a presence at all times so concerned residents can come together and see the latest ambiguous council plans, which are so hard to obtain from the council itself, as well as trying to stop those beautiful trees being cut down.

We only have to look at the mess being created at Victoria Circus and Southend seafront to see the shape of things to come if we don’t do something.

These so-called Better Southend schemes have not been thought through properly as it doesn’t take an expert to see that installing a cycle path along the seafront in between car parking spaces and the road is not safe for cyclists and will slow the flow of traffic.

And spending millions destroying the appearance of Cuckoo Corner, and in particular Priory Crescent, in the dubious hope a few minutes will be knocked off our car journeys is taking things too far.

I thought the Government was telling us to preserve our environment and cut our carbon footprints. New roads encourage more cars and Southend Council is on the one hand encouraging us to use our cars less and cycle more, but on the other is putting cars before everything else, including trees with preservation orders on them.

Having lived in Sutton Road opposite St James memorial, I recall when there used to be traffic lights at the junction and how the council decided to take them away and cut off a corner of the park to widen the lanes to three coming up to the roundabout.

We were told this would improve the flow of traffic, but today there is still a huge queue from Shoebury and I think this is mainly because of parents taking and picking up their children from school.

We need to use our common sense and realise building and widening of roads is not the answer. We need to encourage children and parents to take more exercise or use public transport.

J Stevens
Seaview Road
Shoebury