People on town’s ‘prettiest road’ say cable work has left it a tree graveyard
A tranquil street once considered a town’s ‘prettiest road’ has been left a ‘mess’ after council workers massacred its beautiful cherry trees.
Priory Drive in Reigate, Surrey, was known for its flowering spring blossoms until they were uprooted and replaced with trenches to make way for new cables.
When workers returned to try and fix the damage, locals claim they ‘just spread a load of topsoil over the grass verge, which made it even worse’.
Fiona Lamb and her partner said some trees were brutally lopped and left as ‘unsightly’ metre-high stumps.
Surrey County Council said seven dead or dying trees were cut down following an inspection by an arboriculturist.
‘It’s sad that we lost those trees. The thing that is really upsetting is the cutting down of the live trees,’ Fiona said.
‘I can see no reason why they took the live trees out, they took the two live cherry trees down and were going to take the live silver birches down. It’s just really sad that we’ve lost some nice trees.’
The couple highlighted guidelines against digging within one metre of a tree without completing further checks.
‘Of course, once you’ve dug through tree roots there’s nothing you can do,’ they added.
‘Some of them did need taking down and it was about four or five needed taking down that had completely died and hadn’t been growing at all for a couple of years.
‘They had been reported to Surrey County Council in the past and we’d asked them to come and do some work on those because there were branches falling off.
‘Residents had got in touch with the council so they obviously decided to come along and do those at the same time. But when they did that they took down two live trees which were still flowering.
‘The road used to be lined with an avenue of flowering cherries and it used to look absolutely fantastic in the spring.’
Local green party councillor Catherine Baart has rallied to the residents’ defence, saying: ‘Communication so far from the county council has been disappointing – resident’s affection for these trees has not been recognised.
‘I have asked the council for timescales for next steps and suggested the residents are involved in replanting plans.
‘The residents of Priory Drive valued their street trees, and the trees were also appreciated more widely for the lovely display of spring blossom.’
A council spokesperson said: ‘The trees were found to be either dead or dying, with very little life expectancy.
‘We have temporarily left the lower trunks in-situ to prevent people from tripping over the stumps. However, we are working on a plan to remove these and to plant replacement trees, where appropriate.’
The council added its ambition is for residents to live in safe and green communities, and it recognises the value people place on trees but they needed to be removed on safety grounds.
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