Thankfully, some common sense prevailed at the council meeting on Wed when 5 of the 9 councillors voted to put off the execution, take another look at the Poplar Avenue to see if most can be saved by taking remedial action such as reducing the upper branches rather than a knee-jerk reaction of chopping them all down! There was also mention of well-overdue community consultation in relation to a Landscape Management Plan for Regent Square - included in a motion passed in Dec 2012! And at long last there seems to be a genuine desire to look into proper drainage of Regent Square. The consultants abridged interim report comprised a visual inspection carried out from ground level, commissioned AFTER council grounds staff had already recommended the removal of the Poplar Avenue. If the consultant had been aware that Regent Square itself and this avenue of trees is much valued by many in the community, he may have looked at it with a view to PRESERVATION - especially considering the time trees take to grow to any size in those soil and weather conditions! He may also have benefitted from examining Dr Kellys detailed report on ALL trees on the Square in 2007 and his Landscape Master Plan that used the Poplar Avenue and a proposed Oak Avenue along the eastern pathway as the basic formal features for Regent Square. Both men are experts in their field, but they had a totally different approach, which probably reflects the brief they were given.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 10:43:24 +0000