National Avenue and the Council's tree strategy

John Fareham and John Abbott have details of the Council’s arboricultural strategy as it applies to National Avenue. In its capacity as the local highway authority, the Council is responsible for managing the entire tree population on the city’s roads – all 29,000 of them. The Council have actively managed the tree population for the last quarter century and expanded it to provide good tree cover in the long term with healthy trees. The Norway Pine trees on National Avenue however are 50-60 years old and some are stunted while others are either past it or becoming nuisances by leaning over gardens and dropping things on pavements and kerbs. The officers assure us that they do not take chopping down trees lightly and will only do it when there is plentiful evidence that the specific trees are becoming a problem. In the case of National Avenue the plan is for selective felling of a few trees, pruning others and planting suitable replacements for the trees being felled.