Closed
Tree Preservation Order application
Reported in the Trees category by Jane Valentine at 17:39, Fri 24 July 2020
Sent to Bristol City Council less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 2215365.
The tree is a London plane tree and is situated at the corner of Clyde Lane and Elliston Road. It is situated on the edge of the highway and I believe is owned and managed by Bristol City Council, not privately owned. It is a wonderful and long established feature of this part of the Cotham and Redland conservation area and a well-known landmark in the area. It has been pollarded twice over 3 years, which is more frequent than in previous years. The tree when in full bloom supports a variety of birds and mammals, some of which are listed on Bristol’s priority species list. For example; a local bee colony, hedgehog, common toad, house sparrow and dunnock. It also supports blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, charcoal tit, chaffinch, robin, blackbird, goldfinch, wood pigeon, collared dove, jay, magpie, jackdaw and squirrels. It has also supported a migrating grey heron on a journey to Avon Gorge, and just 2 weeks ago, a kestrel. This tree is a long-standing feature of our neighbourhood and is valued by everyone here for the greenery and sense of well-being it provides in our small part of the city, and the wealth of wildlife it allows us to enjoy.
It is now under threat from a planning application to build a 2 bedroom, 4 person property directly under it. While the plans state they do not plan to remove or damage the tree, the submitted plans and images significantly misrepresent the location, size and scale of the tree. Any building works directly under this tree will damage its root system and canopy. A residential building directly under this tree will force the tree to be constantly heavily pollarded- this has been directly referred to as a requirement in the planning application's design and access statement. This constant management will undoubtedly weaken the tree and damage its health and lifespan. A property directly under the tree will also scare away the wildlife, depriving many important species of a vital natural resource, which in turn will impact their breeding and the successful survival of priority species in the conservation area.
There is a significant likelihood that the roots of this tree will eventually create damage to the proposed property and become a nuisance. This is likely to result in the new owner requesting the tree be removed. Houses in this area are 150 years old, therefore the tree is likely to be the same age.
Updates
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Still open, via questionnaire, 17:17, Sat 22 August 2020
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Still open, via questionnaire, 14:02, Mon 21 September 2020
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If the issue still exists, please review the location and the description and let us know by creating a new enquiry on FixMyStreet
State changed to: Closed
Posted by Bristol City Council at 17:25, Wed 11 May 2022
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location. Please reference 2215365 in your new report if it is an update on this one.