Bristol City Council - Not Getting It - Episode 3

Episode 3 in an ongoing series reflecting on Bristol City Council's inappropriate and under-hand changing of our Urban Fabric.

It's not just in leafy Redland and Clifton that the Ginkgo Madness is manifesting itself.

This is Duckmoor Road. Southville.

South Bristol is not full of leafy suburbs. There are many important trees, but the spacings are generally wider apart than in the north. Which makes every street tree lost even more important for the future amenity and comfort of the city.

So, what are Duckmoor Road's London Planes are being replaced with..?

Yes, that's right. Ginkgos. Slow-growing, ineffective, easy-to-maintain Ginkgos. Even in locations where there is a hugh amount of space and no buildings anywhere near the tree-pit.

The future residents of the area will no-doubt wonder why flooding, heat-waves, poor health, and mental illness affects them more in 20 years time than it does now. Hopefully some of them will come across this post and start to understand why they were left such a useless legacy by the 'officers' of Bristol City Council in 2010.

Maybe, they too will reflect on just how little the trees have grown over the course of the 21st century, in comparison with more appropriate street tree species.

Bristol City Council - Not Getting It - Episode 2

It's Ginkgo week here at BristolStreetTrees, and we're documenting Bristol City Council's inappropriate use of replacement tree species in our city's streets. Will they ever learn?

Here's the other end of Whiteladies Road, which we covered on Sunday. It's called Park Row.

Yep, that's right. Instead of going for like-for-like replacement planting, or taking the opportunity to use a wide pavement to put in a few large canopy trees, Bristol City Council's Parks Department has chosen to book-end the planting near the Downs by planting with more inappropriate Ginkgos near the top of Park Street.

Fantastic.

Bristol City Council - Not Getting It - Episode 1

Those in charge of Bristol City's street trees are currently excelling themselves.

So we'd like to spend a few days reflecting on how unaccountable officers in the Parks Department have the power to change the entire appearance of a city without any consultation, and commission work that seriously damages the city's tree stock, as this photo illustrates:

We covered the stupidity of putting a Lime into the row of Ashes in Ashgrove Road, and putting an Ash into the avenue of Limes in Kellaway Avenue a while ago.

In our next few posts we'll examine the legacy being left for our descendants by people with no training in Urban Design or Landscape Architecture, with no grasp of the health problems associated with Heat Island Effects, without any of the medical understanding of how trees ameliorate urban pollution, and with no understanding of the benefits of large canopy trees from many other perspectives, including urban drainage systems.

After all, if you train as an Arboriculturist you don't need any other skills to butcher a tree, and if you get to plant them you can even have fun leafing through tree books, choosing inappropriate species to impose on the people that pay your wages.

Let's start at the top of Whiteladies Road. Where the Alders (not long-lived, or large growing trees) have been replaced with Ginkgos. Not Limes or London Planes or even Norway Maples, as further down the road. No, slow growing, ineffective Ginkgos.

And why has this been done?

These trees are useless as street trees in all but one way. They grow really, really slowly.  And that means they will not become a problem to the Parks Department for at least 100 years. They don't even have big leaves, so there's no sweeping up in the autumn.

Brilliant thinking, Bristol City Council.

What is going on?

Bristol City Council has chopped down all the street trees it can.

It's now started killing and mutilating the rest of them.

Here's the devastation in Gloucester Road. Whiteladies Road is the same.