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When you live in the country trees matter.
When you live in a town full of bricks, concrete and tarmac, they matter even more.
We have seen recently many noble and beautiful trees destroyed in uncaring developments to build ever more ugly blocks of flats… There are laws to protect certain trees by applying Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) but as in so much government, it’s not the lack of laws–the laws exist, it’s how you choose to apply them.
Here in Budleigh Salterton the developers follow the letter of the law–asking permission of the District Tree Officer–but since these Officers spend almost all their working days dealing with developers they start to see their job as one designed to help the developer. “yea, that’s OK Frank, go ahead and cut ‘em down”. We, taxpayers, who pay their salaries, and we, the local elected councillors, are not consulted even on the most visible and sensitive sites. The latest brutal felling caused so much local upset, we now have the heads of local government coming to a town meeting to see how we can handle this better.
When you live in the country trees matter.
This material ?Jed Falby 2003