Ledbury News
Tree works is just too much
6:40pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
CONTRACTORS have been accused of going too far in their efforts to cut back riverside trees.
Former parish councillor Neville Brooks told Kempsey Parish Council the Church’s Land Trust (CLT) had removed two willow trees, despite an earlier agreement to pollard them.
“I do not think their removal is an asset to this village,” he said on Monday.
The trust which owns the land the trees are on and has a responsibility to keep trees on the banks of the Severn in good order denied they had been removed altogether, but rather cut right back.
Henry Morris, CLT chairman, said they employed “an expert contractor, and he used his judgement as to how far they should be cut back.
“Willow springs quickly, you can throw a piece on the ground and it will grow.”
Mr Brooks said during his time as a parish councillor he had sat on the CLT committee when the pollarding of the trees had been agreed.
“If that is pollarding, then I would hate for them to come and pollard mine,” he said.
Mr Morris said: “It’s our duty to maintain the trees and while the footpath is closed (for the flood defence works to continue) we thought it a good time to cut them back.”