I noticed that two mature trees were recently removed on Grierson Road. Does anyone know the reason for this, or if the council intend to replace them with new saplings? At present the holes where the trees were have been filled with tarmac. It seems a shame to lose two trees without replacing them.

Learn to love the tarmac...as we've had to on Taymount Rise.

I prefer tarmac. It cannot fall on my house!

Sadly I wouldn't hold your breath. Tree planting is not high on LBL's agenda. Living close to the border with Southwark, the contrast is always startling since LBS planted hundreds of street trees a few years ago. Lewisham on the other hand does like a bit of tarmac - it's so classy!

Oh dear. Seems a shame they can spend money on removing trees but can't plant any to replace them. I appreciate the priority of other more pressing issues for the council, but trees are a relatively small expense that contribute greatly to everyone's enjoyment of the local environment.

and yet they have very neatly trimmed the trees and shrubbery outside FH train station.

I asked about removal and replacement of trees on my road near Grierson Rd. Never got a reply. I suspect it is because trees = compensation payments for falling branches, damage to houses and cars and they cost money to maintain. In the current local government funding climate not much hope for any new planting. I think it's c**p as they really make a difference to the appearance of a street.

Lewisham's approach to trees is plain odd. Not sure about the fear of damage to property leading to them being taken down though. We called them about a Copper Beech that has grown so large that branches from it now touch a neighbour's roof, walls and windows...only a significant problem when it is windy but worth addressing. They sounded disinterested but said the tree would be surveyed and we would be told the result. We weren't so after a few months I called back and was told it wasn't on their list of 'priority trees' that needed management. I asked if we could pay to have the tree pollarded/pruned through one of their recommended tree management companies but this was rejected too. Horrible feeling that in a few years time it'll be so big they cant ignore it and they'll just take it down.

FH without its trees will not be the FH that attracted me here in the first place.

Oh, and not sure if anyone else has been hit by this but it seems that 'tree surveys' are the latest thing with re-mortgaging. We had to pay out for one on top of the normal survey as the (not qualified in any way to talk about trees) surveyor was concerned about a number of mature trees nearby. What worried me most was the effect this might have on people who have trees of their own as I'd hate them to be removed just out of fear of future mortgaging problems.

The trees outside the station have been trimmed by LOROL as part of their contribution towards "Forest Hill In Bloom".

The Forest Hill Society has entered the RHS It's Your Neighbourhood scheme as part of our drive to improve the Town Centre. Nature's Gym will be digging the planters out this weekend (9 April), the Horniman will be providing fresh compost and there will be replanting next weekend (16 April). Come along and lend a hand.

I can also confirm that Transport for London (TfL) was responsible for the felling of the trees along the A205 in the Forest Hill area. This decision was made due to the fact that the London plane on Stanstead Road and the lime tree on Waldram Crescent next to Stanstead Road were both [reportedly] shown to have caused subsidence in neighbouring properties.

They have also just felled a maple tree opposite the Horniman Museum because of its very poor physiological condition.

We are chasing to see what plans there are for replanting.

Maybe someone at LBL has been reading this thread but I woke up today, opened my shutters and noticed that the copper beech I mentioned has been professionally pollarded...I presume by LBL. Very (pleasantly) surprised.

I suspect one reason may be subsidence
I live close to Grierson and my neighbour has just had roots from the tree outside her house traced to the cupboard under the stairs
The tree is going to be removed and neighbour now has the problem of underpinning her house
Given that we know this happens I am constantly surprised that big trees are planted in these small streets

Perhaps we should campaign for bulbs or bushes instead

The problem is not so much big trees as concrete and tarmac. Back in the day before the car and concrete people had front gardens which were grass and or shrubs etc. When it rained the rain soakd into the ground at the point it landed and supplied water to trees, grass etc.

Nowdays with large parts of the water catchment are tarmaced or concreted over there is'nt that immediate point of water entry into the system.

Hence tree roots now radiate out in search of water and unfortunatly end up under houses.

Cutting the trees down alleviates the problem to some extent but as most houses in London are built on clay we then have expansion of wet clay in the wet season and contracting clay in the dry. This causes the clay under most older houses with shallow foundations to have subsidence and movement.

We can cut the trees down but do nothing apart from underpinning with the clay.

My rather laboured point is, if we look after our trees i.e. pollarding etc we can alleviate this problem to a large extent.

I agree about the concreted gardens but surely the pavements and roads have to be there anyway
~Trees are just not meant to be in an environment such as this
I can count three spindly trees which have fallen on top of parked cars in my street alone. Streets are just the wrong place for big trees

BB, one could argue that the trees were here first i.e. FOREST Hill.