Suzanne Audrey pulled the whole project together, edited the book and contributed the introduction and conclusion. The book is well worth buying. It tells a story of the diversity and resilience of Bristol communities when faced with threats usually emanating from the council which should be looking after them. The Bristol Tree Forum was asked to contribute. During the launch event, contributors were each given three minutes to describe their work. This is what we said:
Saving Bristol’s Urban Trees by Vassili Papastavrou
In Bristol we are seeing the loss of hundreds of important urban trees each year. They cannot be replaced and it will create a city that is unliveable – we need them to keep us cool now.
I’d like to illustrate the problem with two willow trees which grew not far from here. Two years ago, during National Tree Week, they were chainsawed by Bristol City Council. Highly visible and next to Temple Meads, the trees should have had Tree Preservation Orders but the council does not TPO its own trees, claiming that it is a responsible landlord and that its trees are safe.
I was brought up in Cambridge. Along the banks of the river Cam, willows are such a feature of the city that no one in their right mind would consider chopping them down. But in Bristol they were removed without a moment’s thought.
The removal was filmed by Martin Booth and got a lot of coverage but in reality it was just another ordinary day of tree removal in Bristol. Martin tweeted, “This is so sad to watch. One of Bristol’s most beautiful trees, a majestic weeping willow is being chopped down this morning”.
Trees compete for space with other uses of the city. In Bristol mature urban trees are given lowest priority, so when plans come up, trees are removed. As this incident demonstrates, they have zero value to the Local Planning Authority or the council.
The willows never went in front of the Planning Committee where there could have been a debate as this was a “delegated decision”. Effectively Bristol City Council was giving planning permission to itself in a backroom deal. The planning application was snuck through with no mention of the trees in the title, no arboricultural report from the council, no tree officer report from the local planning authority. The council passed judgement on itself.
And after the deed had been done, was there any recognition that a terrible act had been committed? An inquiry to make sure that this kind of thing would never happen again?
Silence. For in Bristol there is no one in a position of power who cares about retaining important urban trees.
We can only hope that that will change.
Bristol Tree Forum 
And the trees, near fountains, Bristol Center.Next?
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