RESIDENTS in Oldfield Park say they are baffled as to why four trees have been ‘butchered’ and now fear for the rest of the trees in the street.
Residents say the street now looks like a scene from Armageddon and are disappointed the trees have been chopped back so severly by ‘chainsaw savages’.
The work was undertaken by Selwood Housing Association who own and maintain the Oldfield Park estate.
Charlie Finbow who lives in Oldfield Park said, “Why are they [Selwood Housing Association] cutting down perfectly good trees on Oldfield Park? We were not told of this work.
“Speaking to neighbours they are just as baffled as to why, it has been suggested (and its only hearsay) that a few residents complained about light issues, but that’s like buying a house next to a pub and asking it to be closed down because it’s noisy.
“I can’t fathom it. We can’t just destroy mother nature willy-nilly to suit. I have written to Selwood but had no reply.
“I’m disappointed four lovely mature trees were transformed into a scene from Armageddon (in my view) for no apparent reason. Is this the start of a campaign to remove all the lovely trees on Oldfield Park? I hope not.”
Hilary Grist, communications and marketing team manager at Selwood told White Horse News, “The three London plane trees either side of Oldfield Park have become significantly overgrown, causing a dangerous obstruction across the road as their leaves and branches have met in the middle. All of our trees are surveyed every year, and these trees were due to be pruned in the spring as part of our regular maintenance programme. However, as they posed such a danger to cars and people walking underneath from falling branches, this deadline was brought forward.
“We hand delivered letters on the 26th July to inform every resident in the street that we would be pollarding (heavily pruning) the trees that week in the interests of public safety. The pollarding only slows down the growth of the trees and they will grow back next year.”
In response to Selwood’s comments, Charlie said, “This brings a totally new meaning to the word pruning in my view, more like chainsaw savagery. I take it then, using Selwood logic, they have signed the death warrant of all the wonderful mature trees on Oldfield Park.
“I guess Joni Mitchell was right about the trees ending up in a tree museum.”
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, pollarding (pruning) keeps trees and shrubs smaller than they would naturally grow. The best time to pollard a tree is late winter or early spring and the least favourable time is autumn, as decay fungi may enter the pruning cuts.
what do you think?
