Thanet Trees group is demanding enforcement is carried out over the severe pollarding of a tree in Cliftonville and is inviting residents and councillors to join a protest dressed as trees, birds or even a Halloween themed Chainsaw massacre.
It follows the cutting back of a mature tree at the Thanet Indoor Bowls Centre on Eastern Esplanade earlier this week which was ordered to a halt by the district council after a resident complaint.
Thanet Indoor Bowls said the roots of the tree are going under the building and causing damage.
Thanet District Council’s tree officer visited the centre the next day, and asked that the “pollard” be tidied up.
But Thanet Trees group say the action taken was ‘inadequate.’
A spokesperson said: “Despite declaring a climate emergency and hiring a new officer to allegedly protect our biodiversity, time and time again TDC fail to protect the environment. Every time a tree or hedge is illegally destroyed the perpetrators get away with it.
“Other places this seems to have happened include: Tivoli Woodland, Margate Winter Gardens, Park Avenue Broadstairs, Mulberry Place at Laleham Gap, Westwood Lodge, Westwood Cross, Northdown Road and much more. This has to stop!”
Thanet is in the bottom 20 districts for tree coverage in the UK.
The socially distanced protest takes place at 10am this Saturday (October 24) next to the tree that was cut.
People joining the protest are asked to bring banners and noise makers.
The group demand:
TDC pursue hefty fines from the perpetrators of crimes against the environment.
TDC ensure the replanting of like for like when mature trees are felled illegally.
TDC put words into action, and protect our environment, as promised.
The group added: “We invite our councillors to support the electorate they represent and join our protest to make a stand against the lack of enforcement carried out by council officers to protect our environment.”
Fine them the full 20k … Never lived anywhere with so few trees. London has more trees than Thanet. No I am not a DFL by the way….
Thanet has had low tree cover since the early 1800s if not earlier. It’s not all because of TDC.
Haha, true! More could be done to restore them though (for example, Station Road in Westgate-on-Sea was once tree-lined but isn’t these days).
So what? TDC and local councils before them have had plenty of time to rectify this lamentable situation. What have you done to reverse this virtually tree free Isle?
I have planted three trees in my little garden. But I don’t think it’s anything to boast about/
That may or may not be the truth but you cannot say that TDC is helping to rectify that in this new “enlightened” age
I can say that I have spent most of my adult life trying do as little harm as possible to the environment, however.
Why would I lie about an easily proven fact?
Ironically, KCC has acknowledged the low tree-cover in Thanet and has seemed to favour Thanet for the provision of new trees over other local areas with more trees.
Yet trees appear to be getting chopped back, or down , at a rate of knots in Thanet with TDC officials never seeming to stop it. What is the point of KCC providing suitable saplings when existing trees are allowed to go at a faster rate.
I am told that Dover District Council is just as bad, allowing builders to demolish trees and hedgerows without permission, and then not enforcing the law.
What is the point of legal protection for wildlife if the Council officials will not enforce it? And why don’t they?
Quote:” What is the point of legal protection for wildlife if the Council officials will not enforce it? And why don’t they? ”
The question that you have asked is EXACTLY the point of the demonstration!
Harold Road used to be lined with trees both sides just like a French avenue. Pics in archive from 1920s..
How environmentally sensitive is it to bring “noise makers”?
How many tree enthusiasts have concrete or paved over their front gardens to create a car parking space?
Get rid of your environmentally damaging car. Dig up the concrete and plant a couple of trees.
And (it goes without saying) don’t drive to the demo, if you really must go to it.
So people that care for trees and our environment must not drive cars but walk around wearing sackcloth and ashes?? Get real and stop sniping from the sidelines. At least the people that do attend are putting their “time” where their mouth is.
I don’t have a car but I wear normal, mostly secondhand, clothes. Don’t exaggerate, “Concerned Resident”.
A recent comment on the Thanet Trees facebook page: “Cutting down…trees…is a form of murder.” I do not think this sort of statement helps the group’s case.
Well, your place to respond to that is on the Thanet Trees FB page. It was a comment ? Then is not under the ownership of Thanet Trees. I happen to think that it is just a poetic licence or Free Speech.
What is meant by “under the ownership of Thanet Trees”?
I can’t comment unless I join facebook and I don’t want to do that.
What a bunch of nerds we have in Thanet. How many of you ave considered how many trees, flowers and the like were destroyed when your house was being built. You’ve got a weird sense of what’s important to have time to post gibberish oubout a bloody tree when Thanet is guilty of having one of the highest levels of child poverty, let alone how we treat our elderly and vulnerable. But never mind, go and hug a tree, I’m sure that’s how you must get your thrill. Idiots.!!!