Stop The Chop - Save Chestnut Avenue, Tooting Common

[user1476013826]

The protest to Wandsworth Council regarding the felling of the 77 trees in Chestnut Avenue, Tooting Common is progressing well.
There has been overwhelming support from local residents and user of the common in trying to stop the council from having their plans approved and have all trees down in November, regardless of whether they are healthy or not.
We have found that the majority of people did not know about the plans and were upset about the Council’s proposal.
There is a petition set up and we currently have received over 4,200 signatures. If you have not already, please sign the petition and ask family and friends to sign it too so we can try to reach the magic 5,000 mark.
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-trees-on-chestnut-avenue

But why?

They council has had several tree experts out who have identified the trees are diseased and/or nearing the end of their natural life.
They can be replaced in a cost effective way before someone gets hurt by falling branches and the disease spreads to healthy trees

This is insanely NIMBY conspiracy theory nonsense from people who are too incesened to read the basic facts about why this is being done, and whipped up without presenting the facts.

I got a couple of emails about the consultation from the council, btw, so that point is rubbish as well...

Out of 77 trees only 5 need felling as the rest are in fair to good condition according to the independent survey that was carried out in 2015.
We have spent two weekends at the Common Chestnut Avenue raising awareness of the issue, and people were not aware of it or consulted, and were very upset to hear that all the trees will be felled in November.
The consultation completely ignored some areas close to the Common, such as Furzedown, where there are houses actually overlooking the common and most importantly the Common users that are not local residents.
All trees anywhere pose a health and safety hazard which can be reduced by proper maintenance. Should they all be removed?
The chestnut trees will be replaced by lime trees and it will take many decades for the saplings to grow and provide the similar environment.
It's really a shame to lose 150 years of history for financial reasons when the avenue has at least another 100 to 150 years of life span.

Sorry but you are totally glossing over the known facts of this...

Despite regular inspections, a tree fell over a year ago and could quite easily have killed someone
After this, the council inspected all 77 trees and found 22 are diseased but given that it is a pretty infectious disease, it is quite likely others also have early stage disease.
They then spent a YEAR publicising this in their emails, magazine, local papers and by writing to residents to inform them of this.

The trees are currently 160 years old, and that species of tree has a life span of 150-200 years, so even the ones which aren't diseased are very near the end of their natural life and likely to start becoming dangerous.

The decision to remove and replace them all in one go means the trees can all grow at the same rate and recreate the current effect, within a generation.

Most importantly, it means there isn't a MASSIVE risk to the safety of people using that part of the common from random falling branches.
How on earth can you think stringing out a few more years of the trees is more important than people not risking getting killed. Which, by the way, happened on Clapham Common a few years ago...
I don't want a massive chunk of my council tax being disproportionately spent on a daily maintenance schedule because some NIMBYs don't understand that trees have a natural lifespan