Could this local tale of saving a tree, marked for felling, be presaging, or even reflecting, a shift in thinking which will help redesign our urban centres so that they can shrug off the tyranny of road traffic and become healthier and more relaxing places for their citizens?
The Common Lime Tree is native to Britain and has long been associated in folklore with fertility. The leaves of a lime tree are very attractive to aphids and their predators and the flowers provide nectar and pollen for insects and bees. They can grow up to 25 feet tall and last as long as 250 years.
So there was some dismay when the St Albans City and District Council sent out a letter in July announcing that a lime tree in Bricket Road was due to be felled. The reason the tree was to be cut down was that it would obscure the planned entrance to the underground car park for the new Civic Centre Opportunity Site South development and was, therefore, considered a traffic hazard.
The St Albans Civic Society was concerned that a perfectly healthy mature tree was going to be lost at an important site, where Bricket Road meets Victoria Street - a key vista as you enter the city centre from the railway station - at a time when the Council has declared a ‘climate crisis’ and are committed to ‘greening the city.’ There was also the danger that the felling of this tree would set a terrible precedent and other trees in this road that were sited on the pavement might be in danger if it was deemed they posed a health and safety issue for traffic. The Society wrote to the Council urging it to rethink and stop the felling of the tree, pointing out the importance of trees to public health and asking if the entrance to the car park could be moved.
The Council Portfolio Holder for the CCOSS project was sympathetic to the Society’s view but pointed out that the decision to remove the tree lay with the County Council who are responsible for roads, pavements and roadside trees. The Society then contacted the Leader of the Council, who is Climate, Environment and Transport Portfolio Holder, as well as being a County Councillor. He took up the case and with the support of a letter of protest from the Society, was able to save the tree from being felled.
This is an immensely significant decision, not only for recognising the importance of this individual tree but here is a case where there is an implied recognition that the need to conserve the natural environment should have priority over cars. This now needs to be turned into a key policy at both local and national level.
The evidence is quite clear that as well as countering air and noise pollution, trees and greening improve public well-being, both physical and mental. For too long the primacy of the motor vehicle has governed urban planning. It is now time to put public health first and make the natural environment, trees and greening, in cities a priority, not subservient to traffic.
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