Comments on: Cambridge City Council Adopts New Protocol for Making Decisions on Tree Works

By: John Lawton

John Lawton — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:33:03 +0000

Yes, kudos to Cllr Gawthrop, but it was also a rare example in Cambridge of people power in action. Parents and others went down very early in the morning to the school and barred the vehicle entrance. They then sat down around thee trees preventing their felling, I assume until the city council TPO came into force. Their action prevented the tree removal, and the reduction in the playground due to the proposed East Road widening. Don’t forget that the County had (has?) a long term plan to dual cariageway all of East Road, and Gonville Place (and presumably further) as an inner orbital route. Could it happen now we wonder?

By: David Vincent

David Vincent — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:53:58 +0000

I recall the tree preservation orders for the St Matthews playground in East Rd. Frankly they had little to do with the quality of the trees (largely saplings) on the grassy bank and everything to do with delaying the works to dig them up (preparatory to widening East Rd)until after the impending County Council elections. At the election, the then Conservative County Council was dislodged and the decision to widen the road reversed. A belated round of applause for former councillor Frank Gawthrop (whose idea I believe it was). A splendid piece of representative democracy in action. Possibly something of an abuse of tree preservation powers (which is why they had to do it twice) but entirely necessary at a time when grassy bank preservation powers did not exist. As they still don’t, of course. _

By: Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:14:42 +0000

Councillors who are not happy with the ‘5 days and you’re out’ policy for assumed approval, should set up a scheduled task which sends, at daily intervals, an email saying, “I object to the latest tree-felling proposals.”