Twig trouble (From Penarth Times)

Twig trouble

I WAS amazed to read letters protesting at the Vale Council's pollarding of trees in Wordsworth Avenue.

When we moved to Penarth more than 40 years ago, this pollarding was done on a regular basis, and the trees were of no nuisance to anyone.

But the council's nearby street trees, especially in Mountjoy Avenue and Hastings Avenue, are now in urgent need of attention.

Branches snap during storms or heavy winds, threatening phone lines and sometimes falling on pedestrians.

Longer branches overhang lawns and front gardens in which shrubs and flowers do not flourish.

Paths and guttering suffer in autumn far more from falling leaves than the pavements outside, which nevertheless become dangerously slippery.

Asthma and hay fever sufferers can be badly affected at pollen time by such overgrown lime trees in close proximity.

From springtime onwards sticky deposits settle on windows, paintwork and cars, which have to be washed with hot water several times a week.

The lower trunk of the tree outside my house has such profuse shoots that I keep trimming them.

Dozens of schoolchildren cross the junction of Milton Road and Coleridge Avenue, and approaching motorists would have restricted visibility of children if the tree's shoots were not cut back.

Most residents in Penarth's "Poets Corner" are relieved at the council's long overdue attention to their street trees.

Ellis Davies Milton Road Penarth