Tree axe could bring down Oswestry Christmas lights plan
Saturday 21st August 2010, 6:00AM BST.
Some of Oswestry’s festive lights may be in jeopardy if plans to chop down cherry trees in the town centre are given the go-ahead.
Shropshire Council is requesting permission to lop down nine trees in Festival Square on Smithfield Street which have damaged paving.
Oswestry councillor Betty Gull today said each year the trees were used to hang Christmas lights on.
It is planned to replace the trees with Koelreuteria Paniculata, or Golden Rain Trees, but Miss Gull says it will take years for the replacement trees to be strong enough to hold the illuminations.
Miss Gull, chairman of the Christmas Lights Committee, said: “It takes so many years to get a tree to grow to the right height to be strong enough to carry them.”
She and other councillors want the town council to object to the application.
David Woodhouse, Shropshire Council’s arboricultural officer, said: “The cherry tree roots have damaged the surrounding paving – to reinstate the area would harm the trees to such an extent that the trees would probably die.”
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