Tree warden appointed to protect roots at Shropshire housing site
Trees at a new housing development will be protected as a town council plan to use the site as a model for the future.
Cleobury Mortimer Town Council will use their appointed tree warden, Kit Smith, to monitor trees and their roots at a new housing site on Tenbury Road in the town to ensure they are protected from damage.
The council are using the site as a model for future developments on how to work with housing developers to help protect trees and the surrounding landscape.
Kit Smith, Cleobury Mortimer tree warden, said: "We are using the Tenbury Road site as a model for future developments because we have over 100 houses to build over the next five years in the town and so now we know what works and can use the model in the future to protect trees.
"We know that when the developers go to a new site they have planning permission for what they need to do and what tends to happen is trees and the environment and landscapes are last to be considered.
"Developers can sometimes plough through tree roots because they have no instruction about them. Shropshire Council have not got the time to be on site when that happens.
Challenging
"So the local council has appointed a tree warden to make sure the conditions of the planning application actually follow through. It is eyes and ears locally following planning applications.
"The 22 houses being built on Tenbury Road is a challenging site already – there is a lot of soil to be removed and there are five or six important trees which must be protected.
"What we are trying to do is that on day one when the first bit of soil is removed trees and tree roots are protected. Myself as tree warden appointed by the town council and my two assistants will put this into action."
Kit said the developers of the Tenbury Road site, Jessup, are co-operating with his team very well.
He said: "Some trees that can live for over 300 years can be stopped in their tracks when a drain or something is put in nearby. It would not die for about two years so you would never notice until it was too late.
"We have installed root protection zones which have six foot high fencing around the roots."
