Tree felling work was going on today in the Museum Gardens.
There is a project in the area which will see flood resilience improved.
Not everyone will be pleased to see the loss of mature tree canopies.
Still the work does provide at least a short term opportunity to view the Yorkshire Museum and The Hospitium from normally obstructed angles.
The York Council announced last week that it had obtained external funding for the planned new “forest” near Knapton.
Ironically the first signs of activity on the proposed site have been tree felling works over recent days. (Clearly some of the trees were diseased).
No sign yet of any environmental evaluation.
The expectation was that there would be an attempt made to justify turning good quality agricultural land into a forest, with benefits and adverse consequences clearly enumerated.
Seems that will not happen nor has any public consultation on layout and other options yet started.
Sustrans, who manage the York – Selby cycle path, are consulting on the work that they they hope to undertake on the trees and bushes which are adjacent to the path.
Already some work has started on removing invasive and self seeded trees the roots of which have damaged the adjacent cycle path.
The consultation takes a deeper look at the future of the green corridor.
Invasive Himalayan balsam would be removed while an effort would be made to introduce tansy into the grassland sward to support the tansy
beetle.
Near Bishopthorpe, some fruit trees may be planted.
We think that most cycle path users will welcome this initiative from Sustrans.
We only hope that repairs to the surface of the cycle path will start quickly now.
Too many sections of the route have been made hazardous by root damage.
No news yet on when the promised improvements, to the York Council maintained section of the cycle path between Tadcaster Road and the A64, will start. Improvements were promised as part of the plan to provide a new clubhouse and pitches for Bishopthorpe FC.
The clubhouses itself – although currently mired in mud – is making progress but no start date for the promised path upgrade has been given.
This section of track is also now subject to tree root damage.
It appears that the York Council ordered one of the trees on Foxwood Lane – adjacent to Acomb Moor – to be cut down.
They claim it was diseased.
There was no consultation with residents or local Councillors.
Suspicions were raised that the felling was connected with the proposals contained in the Councils new draft Local Plan which could see Acomb Moor built on.
NB Meanwhile the Council has finally started to publish the objections made to Labour’s Local Plan.
They are unsorted and largely impenetrable in their present form
