Residents petition Derbyshire County Council over 'half-hearted' pruned trees

Residents want action from the council over the state of trees in a Chesterfield street.

Local Lib Dem campaigner Cllr Paul Niblock says "The residents of Walton Road have been repeatedly let down by Derbyshire County Council's half-hearted and delayed attempts to prune and provide proper maintenance of the mature trees on Walton Road."

"My colleagues Tom Snowdon and Maggie Kellman first asked for action in August 2018 following residents' complaints about overgrown trees blocking streetlights and dropping excessive amounts of leaves and damaging sap."

"DCC promised to act in 2019 but didn't until reminded again in October. Only a minor trim was applied instead of the 'Crown lifting' originally promised. So, the local Cllrs and I collected a residents petition which I presented to DCC in August 2020. The Council response promised limited trimming around the tree bases but nothing to the tree Crowns."

"We are lucky to live in such a green town with so many trees enhancing our environment. But unless DCC keep their promises to local residents and Council Taxpayers these green assets can become a problem. We need action now."

The petition states that "we pay enough to the county in council tax, so we deserve our work to be done. Please sign our petition and demand action now". <iframe class="converse-re cre-bottom" style="min-width: 100%; float: left; width: 1px;" src="https://get-latest.convrse.media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.derbytelegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Flocal-news%2Fresidents-petition-council-over-half-4916059&cre=bottom&cip=16&view=web" width="100%" height="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

A spokesperson for the Derbyshire County Council said: "We carried out work in this area in December as per the tree report issued by our tree inspector."

"We will revisit to check the work and if we believe any more is recommended we will look at doing this."