Article

|

I’m aware that the blog (and my online life in general) has taken something of a knock recently. I’m not above blaming little children for this; having another child has eaten into the time I spent on it. But what better way to get back into the swing of things with the death and decay of trees in the ward?

The council is about to remove 13 trees from various sites in the ward (detailed below). The Shaftesbury Park Estate certainly seems something of a tree graveyard, and two are being removed from close to my home (one of which I was quite fond of, having rescued it from being a misshapen young sapling).

All the sites will be replanted, but, unfortunately not until the next tree planting season – so they will remain empty for around a year.

The trees, and reasons, are:

  1. Outside 33-35 Amies Street – tree is 60% dead
  2. Outside 8 Ashbury Road – tree is 80% dead
  3. Ashley Cresent, opposite 20 Queenstown Road – tree has dead bark and root decaying fungus
  4. Outside 128 Dunston Road – three has dead back and root decaying fungus
  5. Outside 165 Elsley Road – tree is unstable and 60% dead
  6. Outside 189 Elsley Road – tree is 60% dead
  7. Outside 71-73 Eversleigh Road – tree is dead and has a heartwood decaying fungus
  8. Outside 48 Grayshott Road – tree is unstable and has root and trunk decaying fungus
  9. Outside 19 Holden Road – tree is 50% dead
  10. Outside 20-22 Kingsley Street – tree is dead
  11. Outside 2-4 Morrison Street – tree is dead
  12. Outside 39 Sabine Road – tree has extensive trunk decay
  13. Opposite 53 Sabine Road – tree is 60% dead

If you know of any other trees in the ward that need attention, or any empty tree bases that need filling, let me know.

Article

|

Shaftesbury Park EstateFollowing on from the introduction of the local safety scheme on the Shaftesbury Park Estate the council is now looking at introducing a 20mph speed limit on the estate’s roads.

20mph zones are tricky, largely because they need to be enforced and are not (I would say quite rightly) a priority for the police at the moment. This means they only work where the average speed of the traffic has already been significantly reduced – and this is where the safety scheme has played a part.

Personally I think the current scheme has been incredibly successful. The raised beds are attractive and in keeping with the conservation area and, living close to one, don’t seem to create the noise problems so often associated with traffic calming – and the evidence shows they have slowed traffic, speeds on Elsley and Sabine Roads have been reduced by 6mph on average.

The 20mph zone will require some more roadworks – Grayshott and Tyneham Road will be getting the new raised beds (like those elsewhere in the area) at their junctions with Eversleigh and Ashbury Roads. Additionally there would be raised entries to the estate at the junctions of Heathwall Street and Sabine Road with Latchmere Road, and raised entries to Wickersley and Wycliffe Roads. Together these also have the benefit of providing traffic calming in the roads serving local schools.

The proposals are due to be considered at next week’s Planning and Tranportation Committee. You can get all the details from the (rather dry) committee report on the council’s website.