About me: This profile is maintained on behalf of the Save The Belle Vue Two Campaign.
Anyone wishing to find out more about the campaign can contact Steve Price by e-mailing stevemel63@yahoo.co.uk or phoning 01684 568252
Documents relating to the Save The Belle Vue Two Campaign are archived in our blog.
The Belle Vue Two are two healthy semi-mature London Plane trees that occupy Belle Vue Island, which lies within a conservation area in Great Malvern Town Centre.
They were planted 25 years ago, and were chosen by the MHDC for their suitability to cope well with petrol fumes.
At least one of the trees was planted to mark the Falklands War of the previous year.
"Capable of growing to heights of around 80 feet, the £320 tree was officially planted on behalf of the people of the Malvern Hills area by district council chairman Mr Peter Marsh.
"It also marked the start of a concerted effort to restore a number of trees in the Belle Vue area of town, now almost completely bare, which once boasted many fine specimens.
"The tree had been put in the ground the day before by council workmen under the supervision of Mr Dennis Wheelwright, council tree expert, who is also spearheading the campaign to re-tree the Malvern townscape."
WHY ARE THEY GOING TO BE FELLED?
The Great Malvern Town Centre Partnership has been pressing for about two years for the trees to be replaced, saying they are the wrong type of tree for the location.
Richard Chapman, the Town Clerk, had originally suggested their removal (based on his horticultural experience) due to the trees unsuitability for the location.
The partnership fears the trees, now about 60-70 feet high, will grow to about 125 feet, blocking views, and with their roots damaging the island.
But the proposal was opposed by Malvern Hills District Council's planning department, which said there was no evidence the trees were causing substantial damage.
Councillor Hall-Jones, a member of the GMTCP, said "they were not a traditional type of tree for Malvern, and its large leaves caused problems by being slippery underfoot."
He also says that "nothing grows beneath their canopies, and that if they were allowed to grow any larger, they would cause problems for Belle Vue island as a centrepiece for Malvern in Bloom."
Belle Vue Island and the somewhat ambiguous "effect caused by the inappropriate choice of two large Plane trees" and the GMTCP's plans for Malvern In Bloom are outlined on pages 23/24 of the Great Malvern Town Centre Strategy, which was published as early as January 2004.
The GMTCP are not the only only ones who want to fell the trees.
At a meeting held on the 11th July 2007 the High Street Great Malvern Coordination Group discussed Belle Vue Terrace.
Specifically, that the "plane trees need to come down as are inappropriate to garden/rockery".
Note that the reasons given for removing the tree refer to the garden/rockery, not structural damage.
In in October 2007 the Malvern Hills District Council Southern Area Development Control Committee decided on a majority vote that the semi-mature London planes should be felled.
You can view the full agenda of that Southern Area Development Control Committee Meeting (Oct 17th) here.
Details of the plans to remove the London Planes and the recommendations not to fell them can be found on pages 33-40.
WHY SHOULD THEY STAY?
The existence of these trees cannot be proved to be detrimental to the future economic development of the town, and indeed all the reasons put forward for this request have been speculative rather than demonstrable facts.
The head of MHDC's planning and housing deparment, Gary Williams, said:
"The two trees are a significant and valuable feature of the street scene despite some unsympathetic pruning in the past and appear to have no overriding health problems."
While the council's landscape officer recommended they should be protected with Tree Preservation Orders.
In January 2008 an independent report commissioned by the Save The Belle Vue Two Campaign refuted the arguments put forward by the GMTCP for felling the trees and concluded that the trees should not be removed.
Unfortunately, this report will not be taken into consideration when councillors decide the fate of the trees.
Furthermore, the removal of the trees from what is intended to be the centrepiece for Malvern In Bloom, is completely at odds with the ethos of the RHS Britain In Bloom Campaign.
That fact at least one of the trees was planted to mark the start of a campaign to "re-tree" Great Malvern is particularly ironic!
HOW LONG HAVE WE GOT TO SAVE THEM?
The decision to remove the trees has been deferred until MHDC receive a report from the Forestry Commission.
WHO ARE THE GREAT MALVERN TOWN CENTRE PARTNERSHIP?
The Great Malvern Town Centre Partnership consists of:
4 Members/Delegates of the Town Council - Cllr M Selby, Cllr F Johnson, Cllr A Macmillan, Cllr P Tuthill
4 Members of the Great Malvern Traders Association - Anna Brook, Adrian Ward, Robin Elt, Scott Whittaker
2 Members of Tourism Association - Nigel Thomas, Jeremy Sutton
4 members of The Malvern's Experience - Ray Roberts, Nic Howells, Dudley Brook, Roger Sutton
The Town Centre Partnership is a body established to work together on regenerating the Town Centre of Great Malvern.
It comprises representatives of the District Council, The Town Council and The Civic Society, Great Malvern Traders and the Malverns Experience.
The representatives change but are accountable to the bodies they represent.
The Partnership itself is not accountable to any other organisation or individuals.
It is interesting to note that most of the Councillors who are members of the GMTCP are also members of the SADCC who approved the request for the trees to be felled.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Contact your Councillor:
You can find out who your Councillor is here or here
Make a Formal Complaint:
Details of how to make a formal complaint are available here
Contact the Local Press:
Details of how to contact the Malvern Gazette are available here
Details of how to contact Worcester News are available here
Details of how to contact BBC Hereford and Worcester are available here
TELL YOUR FRIENDS
Tell everyone you know about the "Belle Vue Two" and direct them to this website.
The above information was sourced from articles and letters in the Malvern Gazette & Worcester News. The original articles and letters can be viewed in our blog.
Who I'd like to meet: People who can offer their support.
On Saturday 7th June, the 3rd annual Redditch Green Fair will be bigger and better than ever! With 20+ stalls, childrens activities, free vegan food samples, alternative therapists and lots more...
Watch a short video of last year..s event on our MySpace.
Don..t miss this eco extravaganza in Redditch Town Centre from 10.30am - 3pm. Free Admission!
The Abbot of Unreason makes a good point about the Council and if anyone wishes to question them about how they have gone about this sorry episode then I suggest they write directly to them. I believe they have to give an answer. I personally am fairly satisfied that they are a bit embarrassed and have received some verbal acknowledgements of slight wrong doings and perhaps misguided collusion with the Town Partnership. They do need to be held to account though, so please get writing..... Some of them have an obvious agenda regarding the trees and I think some of us are very up on what was going on but it is very difficult to prove. However they didn't win,,,,this time. We, as a group perhaps ought to think about what we do next, I think we are quite politically similar in regards to our local environment and community scene, so does anyone have anything they want to shout about.. Mine are the Theatres and the youth centre ..
This is indeed great news and massive respect to Steve and his team for the success that has been achieved against the "bad guys".
I trust everyone will be standing Steve a drink - so Steve, you won't need to buy a beer for many a week!
We must now ask, nay demand to know whether those "bad guys" who stood behind the decision to have the trees removed are fit to hold office in the public arena? Their judgement has been severely compromised by this affair and they have wasted OUR money (yes PUBLIC Money) on a lost cause. These two issues must addressed. The councillors and their cronies must be called to account for their actions. They MUST not get away with this!
Equally, those council officers who are paid by you and me and openly backed the removal of the Belle Vue Two must also be called to account. Their judgement must also be questioned in the light of this very good news for the town of Malvern!
But let's celebrate a great victory for people power and move on to the next issue of concern that people power can move from the brink of disaster!
I had intended to give you a report on what happened at the tree chaps visit to the terrace but instead I have to report that ......... WE HAVE BLOODY WON IT...... Got an email tonight from Cllr Madden.. yeh baby get in......
I am starting maladministration action against the council. I have written to the ombudsman and Sir Michael Spicer with some details and await their replies. If anyone wishes to make any observations and can see any underhand or obvious maladministration in the council handling of the tree saga then please contact me with any comments so I can forward them to the relevant people. Of course you are free to make your own complaints to the various bodies and this might be welcome.
Other stuff.. The council tree assessment chap is coming on 10th March...
Guess the ring tone.... Cllr Madden's phone went off in the council meeting last night..how embarrassing :) But can you guess the tune it played? A beer for the first correct answer. :0
Well we had our meeting ..sort of ok, I handed in 500 more petition signatures..very good.. I have offered the council the use of our report to save the council tax payer some money, Cllr Madden refused it and said he would wait until they have their in March. Cllr Croad will be passing the report to any interested parties and I have invited council members to contact me on any issue they wish to do with the trees. I did question the wisdom of spending so much money on a potentially useless and pointless project and why they can spend £5000 on the tree removal and not get going on the wall repair in Worcester Rd that is far more pressing..... oh well. Basically I think what they are saying is now the money has been allocated they have to take their time un allocating in, at least I think that was the jist..
The issue of the blockages to the Malvina Spout has been raised recently and that was the main reason for my attendance tonight. I visited the spout today and from what I could see the spout has been badly designed regarding rubbish going down the outlet pipe, there is enough space for leaves, bits of paper and fag ends etc to get in with no evident way of preventing it. It has been claimed that the tree is causing the blockages to the pipe but they actually have no evidence of this and it is as far as I know merely hearsay that the roots have entered the pipe. Also the pipe would appear to run down the ramp towards the post office [there is a rodding eye that indicates this] and not through the root area of the tree in any major way. I think this is being investigated by the council at the moment. I find it slightly unsatisfactory that the council have not given ground on the tree issue and certain members are digging their heels in rather pointlessly but that is the way it is . We do have support from some areas though.. Democracy at work.
The rest of the meeting, [I sat through most of it] was dedicated to finance in the next few years and wh
The council HAVE NOT got their report done, so there is little point in attending the meeting tomorrow unless any one can think of anything constructive to say, I will have a ponder on it, there is a nagging feeling that there is something.......
Blimey, a timely phone call from a person involved has given me something to talk to the council about, namely the pipework at the spout, which seems now to be the prime concern of the council.....so the calculation is repair of the pipes over removal of the trees!! There are ways of doing the repairs tree friendly so I will go to the meeting I suppose.
I have passed on our report and the feedback is positive, I have also been told that the council report may be some way off, but there are other things going on that are possibly very positive I can't discuss right now.
Thanks to all who turned up on Saturday , nice to see people and the weather was splendid, sun shining on the just.... no doubt it will rain next time. :) Steve.
Ok people .... we have our report, I am sure you are all dying to read it but you can't just yet but feel comforted that it is positive in favour of keeping the trees and also has been written by a respected tree expert. Couple of things.... cheers to those who came up the Terrace on Saturday,,and shame on those who stayed in bed.. can't blame you. This Saturday 11 am again so see you there.. Also, does anyone have any information as to the date of planting of these trees and the size they were when planted. If you could contact me if you know. Apparently they measure up as somewhat older than 25 years according to the girth size calculations. Also the height issue appears to be a red herring as they have been measured at 40 foot and not the councils claim of 60-70 foot! Any way thanks to everyone who has got involved with this campaign and keep spreading the word. ps I have found a post card from the 1930's showing 2 trees in exactly the same positions as our trees, I am not saying they are the same ones but it is interesting none the less.
Hi People.. There is a Grand Gathering at the Terrace this Saturday at 11 am, pray for good weather.. It would be nice to see a few folk who are supporting the campaign. Dont forget the MHDC are considering the issue shortly so this might be your last chance to see the trees :( If the weather is ok it might be good to bring some musical instruments and make some jolly noise. See you ALL on Saturday :)
