Success for Poplars Campaign

5.32.00pm GMT Tue 24th Mar 2009

Nigel Quinton pictured with Cllr Louise Lotz at the north car park

Despite Finesse Leisure's appeal to the council to fell ALL of the 428 poplar trees in the north car park at Stanborough Lakes, it looks as if local campaigners have persuaded the council's "Task & Finish Group" to reject this course of action.

Local Liberal Democrats have campaigned tirelessly for the trees to be saved and Liberal Democrat Councillors Louise Lotz and Malcolm Cowan were at the meeting where a phased replacement of the trees in the north car park was agreed to be the preferred option to put forward for public consultation.

Said Malcolm: "This was a nail biting meeting. Some members of the group still wanted all the trees to be cut down, and it was touch and go what the decision would be, but my colleague Louise Lotz managed to persevere and finally common sense prevailed. The trees in the north car park have now been saved."

Thankfully, there are no immediate plans to fell the trees and a phased replanting has been agreed as the group's preferred option. This will go to public consultation and will hopefully be confirmed by the cabinet in due course.

The first block of rows to go will be the ones nearest the children's play area, where there are some diseased trees, if the preferred options go ahead, and these should be felled by 2010. No further felling is likely until the new planting is established.

This will mean there will be no bare and barren wasteland in the north car park. Further blocks may be taken out every 5 to10 years, depending on the condition of the trees.

Nigel Quinton, who has been at the forefront of the campaign to save the trees, said: "It is a shame that we were unable to prevent the council chopping down all the trees in the south car park, but I am delighted that common sense has finally won the day."