IN TAMESIDE YOU CAN’T SEE THE TREES FOR THE WOOD!

 

At the beginning of the year, in his message to the community our council leader, Kieran Quinn announced 16 pledges for 2016.

Among those promises was a pledge to plant a minimum of 2016 trees to offset Tameside’s carbon emissions and support greater biodiversity! Another was to ‘Get Tameside Growing’ – Where he announced that the council will work with the community to get Tameside growing its own food in window boxes, gardens, community spaces and allotments.

However, at no time did he tell us that to make space to begin this mass cultivation in pursuit of self sufficiency, great swathes of ornamental trees from well established urban landscapes, that had adorned communities for decades, would be wilfully destroyed in what appears to be a re-make of Tobe Hooper's classic horror – The Texas Tameside Chainsaw Massacre.

Local residents were stumped!

 

When you see this type of vandalism, you have to wonder if the trees in your area will be next.

Now I don’t know if this ‘aggressive pruning’ was carried out by Tameside Council’s tree surgeons or tree-fella's with chain saws. Either way the result is not a pretty sight!  

Perhaps we should seek out another council pledge to protect well established trees, many of which have stood longer than the Labour councillors who are elected to protect them from a similar fate.