Osney willows inquiry launched

From the The Oxford Times, first published Wednesday 29th Nov 2006.

COMPLAINTS about the felling of 11 'rotten' willow trees on Osney Island, Oxford, have forced the city council to launch an inquiry into why they were chopped down.

The authority's head of corporate complaints, Mike Newman, is to head an examination of the decision-making process before, during and after the cull. It will publish its findings in January.

The trees, deemed a health and safety risk by city council experts, were cut down earlier this month.

However, it was disclosed this week that the trees were inspected and deemed rotten on October 5 - 21 days before residents were told of the council's intention to get rid of them.

The Town Hall maintained 11 of the 17 riverside willows were felled because they posed a safety risk to the public.

But at a meeting of the city council's environment scrutiny committee this week there was amazement that it had taken three weeks for the authority to inform residents of the situation.

Green city councillor and committee chairman Sid Phelps said: "If something had happened between October 5 and 26, to say we would have looked like mugs is an understatement."

The decision to cut the willows sparked outrage.

Bridge Street resident Lesley Casey was so angry she wrote to city councillor Alan Armitage, executive member for a healthier environment.

She said: "The felling of the trees on Osney Island is an outrage, and totally unnecessary. I am a professional landscaper and have spoken to a number of tree experts, every single one of whom said that felling was not necessary.

"Nobody on Osney wanted those trees felled."

In his reply, Mr Armitage said: "I made a decision in the interests of public safety.

"Once they were felled it was obvious the trees were in a very bad way and our tree officer's advice was entirely vindicated.

"Nobody consults about fighting fires, closing unsafe bridges or knocking down crumbling buildings.

"I and the council officers are under a duty in law to protect the public."

There was at least some good news for residents of Osney Island at this week's meeting, when it was revealed the council was planning to replant early in the new year.

City council leisure services chief Sharon Cosgrove said: "This was a professional judgement made by tree officers.

"In this case (the tree) wasn't so dangerous to come down the next day, but dangerous given the winter storms and should be dealt with in a month.

"There are lots of questions around this whole case.

"It was a health and safety issue - we don't cut trees down willy-nilly."

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