The death of hundreds of newly planted trees on Hove seafront is being investigated by Brighton and Hove City Council.
A planning application to plant replacement trees could be in the pipeline once the council has worked out how to prevent a repeat of so many trees dying.
And the incident may even lead to enforcement action – although the council was the applicant in the first instance.
As a result of this, the council’s head of planning, Nicola Hurley, said that she could not say more in case of any legal action.
The trees were planted as part of the council’s £13.7 million Hove Beach Park revamp of the seafront from the King Alfred swimming pool and leisure centre to Hove Lagoon.
When the council’s Planning Committee met at Hove Town Hall this afternoon (Wednesday 2 September), Green councillor Sue Shanks asked why no new trees had been planted after nearly all of the original ones had died.
Councillor Shanks wanted to know what enforcement action was under way to ensure that trees were replanted and cared for as agreed when the original planning application was approved.
Labour councillor Alison Thomson, who chairs the Planning Committee, said that the matter was under investigation ahead of a new planning application but Councillor Shanks was not satisfied with the response.
Councillor Shanks said: “Does that mean that it’ll come back and they’ll say, ‘we don’t have to do what we agreed?’ Is that what you’re saying?
“It was agreed. We always say if something dies within a certain amount of time it has to be replanted and that hasn’t happened there.”
Head of planning Nicola Hurley said that the council would look at what went wrong with the trees and a new application would seek to address the findings.
She was not able to give details of any potential enforcement action because the matter could be subject to legal action.
Ms Hurley said: “We can’t give you details in a public forum about what we may or may not be doing with the application.
“But since they’ve indicated they will be remedying this through an application then we would, in the normal course of things, with any enforcement case, wait for the outcome of the application first.”
This only goes to prove what a bunch of inept and profligate clowns BHCC are
Hmmm
Hundreds of trees died, it’s also highly likely many many more fully mature trees were felled, and will be felled to provide the mountains of paperwork that will be produced whilst this typical council farce is investigated and blame shifting is enacted, witn the public kept in the dark as usual
And no one will be held responsible like in the £3 million Coin Co. Loss!
I don’t wish to state the obvious but could it be that the Hot Summer and a lack of water? Add to that salt air.
Apparently Brighton council have declared a climate emergency and are making everyone poor and cold as they save the planet 🤔🙄
Yet in reality this same council can’t even manage to keep a few young freshly planted trees alive by watering them regularly during the summer.
Nothing sums up more why councils should be forced to go back to doing core services, like emptying the bins, sweeping the streets, looking after parks and gardens etc etc, and nothing else.
The trees were planted as part of Kingway to the sea , Hove Beach Park funded by Levelling up fund . The landscaping would have been outsourced and the trees planted by a contractors who then looks after them for the first year. It was always expected that some trees would not survive and that was built in for them to be replaced. It looks like the issue here is they are the wrong type of tree for seafront location ?
Councillors Julie Cattell and Sam Parrott wrote about this in the Hovarian a few months ago: “At the moment, the council doesn’t have the funds for the rigorous watering regime required to ensure that the new trees survive for the first few years “
One scarcely knows where to begin.
£13.7 million spent, hundreds of newly planted trees dead, and now Brighton & Hove City Council may apparently have to consider enforcement action against… Brighton & Hove City Council.
Presumably a sternly worded letter will be sent from one desk at Hove Town Hall to another, followed by an investigation, a new planning application and several meetings to establish whether the council intends to comply with the conditions the council imposed upon itself.
You really couldn’t make it up.
Perhaps before declaring further emergencies, transforming more stretches of our city or lecturing residents on their environmental responsibilities, the council might master that most elementary piece of municipal horticulture: planting trees actually suited to their location – and then keeping them alive.
Lady B 🌳