Boris Johnson is giving out trees to 40 priority areas, including (very selected bits of) 'New Cross, Deptford and Brockley'. In a bizarre extension of the voting idea pioneered with his park funding, you can now go super-local by registering online for a tree outside your very own home. (Or, according to the press release, 'house' - which would rule out an awful lot of us.)
Not that you're guaranteed to get one. In the spirit of the TV phone-in, there's a lengthy explanation of how your vote doesn't actually do much at all:
* Somewhere in your general area, perhaps, if it's practicable, and if you're inside the squiggly green line on this [PDF] map, and if enough of your neighbours join in...
Not that you're guaranteed to get one. In the spirit of the TV phone-in, there's a lengthy explanation of how your vote doesn't actually do much at all:
This information will then be passed on to borough councils who, as a requirement for street tree funding applications, will be asked where practicable to plant their allocation of trees in areas where residents most want them. It is expected that 100-400 street trees will be planted in chosen locations across every priority area, so by registering online, residents will increase the chances of their streets getting some welcome greenery.So if you'd like a tree,* then get clicking. If, like me, you suffer from hayfever and don't trust them not to plant yet more plane trees, you may just want to ignore this...
* Somewhere in your general area, perhaps, if it's practicable, and if you're inside the squiggly green line on this [PDF] map, and if enough of your neighbours join in...
5 comments:
thanks for this - I hadn't seen the map - had hoped it would include Arabin, Braxfield, Howson and Kneller which are rather short on trees at the moment, but it manages to miss out all of Ladywell ward! Oh well.
It does seem a rather odd, strangely complex map! Some of the included streets also seem very close to existing green spaces.
By my calculations that's 146 streets battling it out for somewhere between 100 and 400 trees. It's better than nothing, but it's not a lot of greenery to go round.
Thank you for doing the maths - that really isn't much, is it?
No, it's not a lot is it? And, to borrow the language of economics for a moment, are these 'new trees', or are we talking about a 'redistribution of trees'?
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