Northumberland County Council ‘can’t afford’ to plant new trees
Despite assuring the people of Amble that new trees would be planted to replace mature shrubs removed without warning on Ivy Street, (Issue #142 p7 Shrub removals left residents and councillors stumped) Northumberland County Council (NCC) has now decided the cost will be too great.
Shrubs were removed from residential areas in Amble
At the time, NCC denied that the decision to remove the shrubs had been for cost cutting purposes.
The Ambler has asked repeatedly for an update over the last year, but no answer was received until now. A spokesperson for NCC replied:
“Urban tree planting schemes undertaken by the County Council at various locations across the county in recent years have been grant funded; unfortunately, there is currently no grant funding or budget available to accommodate the high costs of planting and aftercare for the suggested trees at Ivy Street.
“The Trees and Woodland team will keep the proposal listed as a candidate for planting and aftercare in the event of budget or funding becoming available again; until then we are unable to proceed with the proposed tree planting.”
Anna Williams
