A busy Brighton road is to close for six days from today (Tuesday 1 June) while several trees are cut back or felled for safety reasons, Brighton and Hove City Council said.
Coldean Lane is due to close from today until Sunday 6 June while the work is carried out on the trees, many of which line the road.
The council said: “We’re having to close Coldean Lane for up to six days from Tuesday 1 June to carry out essential work on the trees that face on to the road.
“Many of these trees are dying of ash dieback disease and must be removed for safety reasons and before they fall down.
“We realise there’s never a good time to close a busy road like this but it was agreed between the council’s tree experts, our transport team, the bus company and the contractor that half term would cause the least disruption.
“We‘ve posted letters to what we believe is every household on the Coldean estate explaining the situation, including ways of how people can contact us and the bus company for further information.
“Signage is now in place warning of the closure and we will also have staff on site to help with queries and assist people with mobility issues.”
The council said that concerns about trees collapsing on to the road and injuring someone outweighed worries about nesting birds – but experts would be on hand to help minimise harm to wildlife.
The council said: “Ash dieback is spreading through the city and the trees at Coldean Woods are badly affected by the disease.
“The risk of the trees collapsing on to the road and the damage and injury that could be caused must outweigh all other issues and concerns.
“We are also working closely on site with expert ecologists to minimise any potential disturbance to protected species like nesting birds and bats.
“We only ever remove birds or nests from trees if the trees are endangering people’s lives and or property.”
The council added: “We are very hopeful that the work will not take the full six days, ie, from Tuesday 1 June to Sunday 6 June.
“However, as unforeseen issues can arise when removing trees, we want to be realistic and therefore overestimate rather than underestimate.
“We are, however, barring any really large issues arising, confident the work will be completed by Sunday if not before – and certainly don’t expect it to run into Monday when schools return.”
Hmmm…. might these mainly be trees on the site for the new Hyde Housing flats?
And how many of how many of the trees being felled are actually ash trees?
And of those trees that are actually ash how many are so close to the road, and so large, that they cannot be ‘dismantled’ in sections, using a mobile crane from inside the site, to avoid road closures?
Depending on truthful answers to the above it does sound like this might be a wheeze to break the law, which forbids work on trees and shrubs from March to the end of August – to avoid disturbance to nesting birds?
Especially because the new flats are a Joint Venture between Hyde and our City Council, and possibly there’s a strong internal push to get on with the project, regardless of birds and wildlife?
So is this yet another example of Council officers bending the rules to suit themselves, and without specific democratic Committee authorisation for the proposals?
As happened earlier this year with the unauthorised major cut-back of the ‘green wall’ at Dukes Mound!
Just saying….
@BAHTAG – clearly you don’t use this bit of the road otherwise you would know that area for the housing was not in the woods and was an open field further north of here. That was cleared long ago for the housing. Zero connection to these works.
The woods in question are on an earlier bit of the road. If you were a local you would know how large the trees involved are and would realise the road has to be closed to deal with this. You would have seen the work that has already been done inside this wood.
As a nature lover it is a huge loss, but they are dead already. If not now, soon. If you want to make politics out of it then something could have been done earlier, but we have a council that is allowing Elm’s to die due to mismanagement so the loss of this wood is not surprising. I am scared of what is logically about to happen to Wild Park next.
I mean, even if it was a conspiracy to evade conservation laws, the city clearly needs housing more than pigeons.