Work is underway on several roads in Westcliff-on-Sea to improve the quality and safety of pavements which includes new trees for the environment.
Colemans Avenue, Kings Road and Tintern Avenue will have trees replaced and replanted appropriately for the environment as part of the council’s £10m drive to improve pavements and ensure the safety of footpaths.
Colemans Avenue will have 5 trees removed, Tintern Avenue will have 10 trees removed and Kings Road has already had 6 trees removed with tree pits being constructed for new trees to be planted as replacements.
The decision to remove trees was made on safety grounds after a joint inspection by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s highway engineers and arboricultural team uncovered significant damage to the footways of the streets caused by the surface roots of the trees.
Damage includes cracks which are heaving the footway surfaces upwards, displacement of kerbstones, lifting adjacent rainwater gullies, and lifting footways slabs which are causing trip hazards, an issue which the council is very much aware of and which many of our residents see as a real concern for their health and wellbeing.
Cllr Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment, culture, tourism, and planning, said: “Our tree policy sets out how the council manages its trees, including those unfortunate situations when trees need to be removed. Our first criteria is to ask if the tree can be saved by other works and adjustments in the highway scheme or to the tree itself and we will always look to keep mature trees and only remove them when absolutely necessary, such as in this instance where the trees are causing damage to the footpath which is a safety concern. We have, however, managed to limit the loss in Colemans Avenue by alternative means and will always try to do this first.
“The extent of the damage to the paths means that essential footway resurfacing work is deemed impossible without cutting and removing significant numbers of large surface roots. It is not possible to do this and safely keep the trees because cutting the roots will lead to a lack of stability and potentially cause the tree to die.
Cllr Ron Woodley, cabinet member for transport, asset management and inward investment, added: “As part of the public footway resurfacing scheme, we will identify suitable locations where we can plant new trees as soon as it is safe to do so and once the highways contractor has completed their works - we are trying to avoid too much congestion in the roads for residents.
“Going forward, we are looking into sustainable, hard wearing and porous paving solutions which have been used with much success by many London Boroughs, Birmingham City and other cities across the country.”
The council’s Tree Policy is committed to increasing the town’s tree canopy cover from 12% to 15%, which is an increase of over 1km2, a rise of 20% from the current 5.17km2, and the equivalent of 150 football pitches.
The council remains committed to keeping residents informed of both trees planted and tree removals. More information can be found on our trees page regarding trees planted this year or any trees that unfortunately need to be removed from the streets.