Tree removal on Fossil Road

Just a quick post as a number of residents from Fossil Road have contacted us concerned about a street tree being removed. We spoke to an officer from the tree team this morning who clarified that the tree was removed as it had two types of diseases; some kind of fruiting fungal infection that was making the tree go sponge like from the inside, and another which had killed the crown of the tree. There are no plans to remove any other trees from Fossil Road, although one more will be reduced and reshaped.

The Council's arboriculturalist team have recently completed a full survey of the borough's street trees - every one is now logged on their new database and has been prioritised according to how urgently it needs work on it or not, so there should be a noticeable increase in tree works over the next few months as they carry out this work.

The bad news is that I've been told that the budget for street tree planting has already been allocated for this year and that the Fossil Road tree can't get replaced this Autumn. Do people think we should dip into our localities fund to get it replaced sooner, or should we hang on for it to come out of the normal street tree planting budget next year?

I've asked for clarification on how big the tree planting budget is and how big the shortfall is, as I know a number of roads in the ward have 'missing' street trees.

Interestingly, residents tell me that the cherry trees on Fossil Road, which were planted at the same time as the houses were built, are an unusual species that flower three times a year, although we haven't yet found out the name of the tree type - any suggestions on that?