Broadway Insanity
 

I guess all the regulars on here will be familiar with the 4 fairly large,mature trees that grace the front of "charity shop row" at the top end of Broadway. Well;as of yesterday they are no more! Chopped down to mere stumps to be dug up and replaced with ..guess what...other trees!
I find this totally ludicrous,yes the whole of the revamped Broadway does look better,but would we have minded or noticed if the trees didn't all match???
The sapling oaks that will no doubt take their place will cost about £100 each and will take about 30 years to attain their size.Surely the work could have gone on around the trees.Grrrr.:mad:

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Not a lot to say really, I think you've said it for me. It's pathetic that trees have to be chopped down simply because they don't look new and won't match the others.

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I hate it when someone comes along and chops down healthy mature trees.
There should be some kind of consultation process........I wonder why it was done.

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It seems to me that the powers that be want it all uniform;a big fat waste of our council tax yet again ! I would welcome some feedback from our resident councillors on this as it seems all the more ridiculous when think how that money could have been better spent on a few more litter bins !

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It makes me want to cry when they chop down trees and then replace them with daft sculptures...give me living, breathing, pollution removing trees every time. I often wonder about the birds too.....they have to find somewhere else to roost.

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Hows about a living willow arch planted in planters to match the existing ones MP ? one planter one side, other that side, bend the willows over and weave them together to form an arch.
A daft sculpture and living, breathing, pollution removing.

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It is total madness. The top end of Broadway is a different shape anyway to the bit in front of the Arndale so why did it matter that there were different trees? It added to the interest.

What a completely mindless waste of money from a council that claims to be strapped for cash.

What next? Will they be digging up that bit of a garden thing with benches in front and paving the area and putting big round pink planters on it to match the other ones?:mad:

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May as well willow, they've started so the least they can do is coordinate the seating area. It will have to be repaved anyway.

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Totally agree with all that's already been said.

Yet again why the hell couldn't they get it right the first time! ..... blunder after blunder after ....... :(

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Well im with you lot its totally a waste of money & tree poor things.

As tinks has highlighted is the fact broadway has always been a bloody expense gone wrong everytime they try to 'improve' it only to make it worse & drain revenue, it seems to be a blaming nightmare to get it right without it dug up or pavings coming lose or re-design cos of some pompous councillor. I'd hate to tot up the total cost of broadway since even 1950's cos its done nothing but either change or need constant attention due mess ups with design & construction problems!!!

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Come on you lot.... you actually sound surprised that HBC would do something like this!!!!????!!! :eek:

Wonder if PB has a real log fire and was running short of logs for it??? ;)

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Surprised erm nope peed off yep lol:D

I could tell ya where he can shove his log fire:rolleyes::p

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you and me both, hee hee or should we actually show him??? :p

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We'd only have to show him cos he just wouldnt understand it deaf ears an all so we'd just have to stick him the point instead;):D

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Were they healthy and safe?
If yes then I too wonder why they were cut down.
If no then this is a pointless thread.

Someone could always phone Kate Morley, Hyndburns tree officer on 356203 and ask why they were cut down.

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How long would you expect a town centre to last ?
How long before a tidy and spruce up?
and how long before the paving is replaced, new planters lighting, street furniture etc??
How many times has broadway been redone? I've got no idea being an outsider. Both nuneaton and tamworth were done in late 80's when they were pedestrianised, both undertook further pedestrianisation two years ago 04 and tidied small parts of the previous scheme up. so thats about 15-20 years. Atherstone had a major refurbishment work, in 95, that made headline news with spiraling costs. The work went so over budget that a large chunk of the work was never completed, the main road equivalent to broadway, was meant to be resurfaced with stone but got left as tarmac. Then it started to fall apart, and the cobbled speed bumps had to be replaced with tarmac. It's still slowly falling apart and as it does the clay pavers, stone, rivern paving and cobbles get replaced with tarmac. full circle 11 years.

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Thinking about it your lucky you've got trees, ours died, and got cut down, and were never replaced. the rest were very weak, and recently also got cut down. They were part of the refurbishment too.

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Don't get me started on bloody trees!:eek: :D

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rindy's your resident tree hugger lol :D

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I just made the call for you. The trees have been in decline for several years with a lot of dead wood in them ( remind you of anything :D ). Some of that area of Broadway is actually owned by LCC not HBC. Something to do with it used to be part of the road or foot path. Sounds confusing to me all this HBC owns this and LCC owns that, it makes me think maybe Blackburn with Darwen had the right idea when they kicked LCC out.

So there you are. Trees taken down because of health reasons.

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Thanks for that Neil I was about to make that call, however did those trees look ill to anyone or is it co-incidence that HBC are starting to refurbish the top end of Broadway and the aforementioned trees would have looked "out of place" with the ones already installed.


Hey,I know, lets go and check if the trees are ill...................... oops too late. :mad:

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And I for one, hope that it is lit at the time! :)

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Well, Neil I never knew there was someone to contact about the trees......thanks for that.
And as far as health reasons........well they would say that wouldn't they?
Oh, and before anyone accuses me of being a tree hugger......I'm not....I just like to see green things growing....and hear birds singing.

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

I think it might be a bit of both. I was told that this year they were looking a little better than over the last few years but they still had a lot of dead wood. I suppose there must come a time to cut them down and start again. The last thing anyone would want is a lump of dead tree falling on a pedestrian.
She was very genuine on the phone Margaret

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It's OK Neil I am just an old cynic....there is no cure for it either......I guess I will just have to wait until HBC think I am a hazard and they will chop me down too! :)

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They could have just cut off the dead wood and left the remaining trees.....it seems as if everything is some kind of hazard today....it is amazing that millions of us managed to grow up and thrive.

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I don't claim to be an expert but the trees looked alright to me and I have walked past them every day for the last 17 years.It all seems a little too convenient;either way the contractors are gonna have a hell of a job removing the stumps!:rolleyes:

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I will get a look at this madness in a week but to me its plain stupidity from a council that to me is starting to behave like a spoilt teenage brat!!!

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apparently HBC'S top tree expert diagnosed them with dutch elm dissease :rolleyes:



joking although beleivable :D

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Sure it isnt the tree expert that has DED or is it dry rot between the lugs?

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It is unbelievable the amount of money which has been spent on Broadway, and it now looks completely soulless. I still can't understand why, they had to spend so much money, for a consultant to design the scheme, when they could have asked in the Observer for people to submit their ideas for what ws needed.
At least when there were the raised flowerbeds and forms it had some character. Why must all Town Centres be sanitised wastelands?
I find it hard to believe the trees were dying, I am sure they could have had the dead wood pruned out and been rejunevated.

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It is isn't it. With all these hazards and risks that we've found through assesments, I think it's a real miracle how we got through all those years with only the odd scratch.
Makes me laugh thinking about it MP. Would we for example have got through the two wars, I'm too young of course but those that aren't. Would the country have ever got back to any nomality, we we have had the schools houses businesses built, would we have ever gone to school. Th risk of an open school or a temporary class room, 35 kids to one teacher and an art lesson involving metal scissors.

Nothing wrong with being a tree hugger mp.

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It's the claim culture we live in. If HBC just left trees to fall on people then had to pay out big damages or even bigger insurance premiums our council tax would have to increase to pay for it all.
What do you as a council tax payer want, safer areas with lower tax, or a dangerous town centre with the added bonus of higher council tax to pay for all the accident claims?
I will go for lower tax and a safer place to live thanks

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

Strange then that they have planted Oak trees on the refurbished part of Broadway. Those dropping missiles/acorns could be killers.:D

Where do I put my compensation claim in?

What, I'll have to wait fifty years?

Damn.:(

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

Dont forget the number of feathered members of the local "BOMBER GROUP" who would be in heaven. To me it looks like the council wants beauty their way not natures way. How long before they change the set up again?

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If they let you out from the old folks home that is :p

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Takes about 10 yrs for them to start making acorns doesn't it.

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Well, hope I am around in 10 years time, 'cause I think they will be quite beautiful then, no matter what other people think. :p

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I think the new trees WILL look beautiful....but I could see nothing wrong with the older trees....and how much nicer it would have looked if there had been the mix of the more mature trees with the striplings.....it is about character. I just get a bit jaded with the homogenized centres of towns......all the shops the same.....little difference in the street furniture.

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And how long will it be before someone judges the new trees to be a hazard of some description and cut those down too?

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Proberly by the next administration.

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I suppose there is method in the madness. Accrington means 'ring of oak' and presumably all the original oaks have long gone so they perhaps have a plan to reinstate a ring of oaks around the town.

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Perhaps they do have a plan for a ring of oaks, but PB's thinking is'nt usually so joined up is it?

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Well every now and then you have to give the council the benefit of the doubt!

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Now that is forward thinking! I think I need smelling salts. :eek:

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Good idea considering the relevance of Oak trees to Accrington, but Broadway is hardly ringing the town centre.:confused:

Oak trees are one of our most beautiful native trees, but I don't think trees that drop their leaves as well as shade vast areas when full grown, are the right choice for a town's main thoroughfare.

Banging my same old drum..... this afternoon I was stood on Broadway and have decided that the shabby blue and white Town Hall extension and shops is not only the ugliest, shabbiest municipal building in Britain, it's thw worst I've ever seen anywhere in the world.

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Just imagine a charity shop in place of the shack.:D

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They will look beautiful if took and planted where they should be planted.
Oak trees grow in to enormous trees, what you going to do with a 60ft wide oak tree on broadway?, put christmas lights on it?
I really can't imagine what they are thinking because aren't they in pots too. They'll get pot bound in a couple of years, they'll never do any good because they're the wrong tree for the location.

As for that blue monstrosity, i'd have thought the council would have told the owners to maintain it and make it safe.

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

lol well done for finding that pic rindy. proves the point perfectly

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Thats a kids paradise that G. Nice one. :D

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The trees aren't in pots so Gawd knows what havoc the roots are going to create when they are huge oaks! Anyway you can't see 'em now because of the Pot Fair that has just set up for a week;it's virtually in my doorway yet again! So roll up for hideous pot dogs and awful statuettes of elephants! They also do a nice chrome Elvis statuette:o . .

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It is going to be a long time before the Oak trees in Broadway reach the maturity that Madhatter cites....there will probably have been five or six refurbishments in that time....so Lindsey, I don't think you need to worry about the roots...they will probably have been chopped down like the other mature trees further up Broadway.

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

15 yrs. they'll be about 20 ft across, about 30 ft high and full of nobly acorns. They do grow slow but they are the king of the forrest.
Are they english oak?

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They let them grow into them willow, like the did here, then they cut the tree down with the cage on and replace tree and cage.

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I read somewhere that you are going for Town Councillor.
You should do well as all you ever do is whinge and moan about things.

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

councillors don't whinge and moan they just ignore things and pretend everythings ok.

The above isn't a whinge or moan though neal it's fact, that is what happens, the tree grows to the edge of the pavement grid or cage and grows in to it, then the only thing that can be done once that happens is replace the tree.

I will whinge and moan though by saying it only happens through neglect.

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

Isn't there anyone else out there who finds it ever so slightly fishy to have three (seemingly healthy) trees chopped down (on health and safety grounds) just a few days before the work on the top end of Broadway begins.

Oh.....I'd better take TWO of my Anti-cynic pills for that now!

Is it just me who thinks that anything inconvenient can be removed if you cite Health and Safety as the reason?

No....better make it THREE anti-cynic pills.

Re: Broadway Insanity
 

I'm suprised they didn't blame it on a mini tornado like they did down here.