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Planners’ vandalism
• AS if it isn’t bad enough that Islington Council is about to sell off part of the open space (formerly playground) at Hugh Myddelton Primary School in Clerkenwell with planning approval for a nine-storey block of flats, the removal of three mature poplar trees on the St John Street boundary also appears to be included with the approval.
As fine, healthy, attractive trees – described as “valuable” by council tree officers – they have been an important part of the street scene for maybe 60 years. The decision to allow their removal is nothing short of bureaucratic vandalism.
Shame on the planning committee for departing from the council’s own widely-heralded “green” policies. Its laissez-faire attitude to the natural environment sends a great message to anyone hoping to develop a clear site unencumbered by inconvenient, “expensive” trees. If the council can deviate from its own environmentally conscious policies with impunity when it suits it, future applicants for planning approval will see no reason why they should not remove trees which might stand in the way of new building development.
The Islington tree service team who, by the way, were debarred from commenting on the proposals because the applicant (the council as education authority) has currently no statutory obligation to do so, are of the opinion that these three poplars are sound and healthy and that tree preservation orders should be placed on them without delay. The obvious solution is for them to be redesigned as “street trees”, as they stand only one or two metres from the public highway.
Being immediately adjacent to the New River Conservation Area and having enhanced the street scene for so many years, they should without question be preserved and valued as an entity in themselves, regardless of any building development, and maintained for the benefit and enjoyment of all who live and work in Clerkenwell.
We are aware the council followed “due process” in considering this application and that the question of whether these trees should remain or be removed was discussed. However, many people feel strongly that the time has come for a higher value than currently seems to be the case to be applied to mature, established trees which places them outside and separate from the concerns of land values and sale prices.
The great advantage of trees – that of hoovering up carbon dioxide, especially in the city – is one thing. More importantly, we all need to have nature in our lives even if we’re not always aware of it, and large street trees go a long way to providing that. Once trees are cut down they are gone for ever – then we realise we will miss acutely their calm presence and their beauty. Please don’t let it happen this time!
Rosie Collison and
Joanna Boukadir
EC1
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