Tree campaign plans stumped (From Stroud News and Journal)

Tree campaign plans stumped

TREE campaigner Ron Birch says he is being fobbed off by council after a project he was working on with it ground to a halt six months ago.

Mr Birch, 62, of Belle Vue Road in Stroud, started working with Stroud District Council a year ago to build a tree trail round Stratford Park. But six months into the project after all the planning had been done the scheme came to a standstill.

"We have finished all the designs for the various plaques and the map of the tree trail," he said.

It has all been costed and I believe the material has been ordered - everything has been agreed yet nothing is happening."

Mr Birch said that the recent reorganisation of staff at the council, which led to strike action, is responsible for the hold up.

"I phone them and they tell me things are difficult there at the monent but the wheels are going round slowly."

The trail will identify different species of trees and the maps will give descriptions of them.

Cllr John Marjoram (Green, Trinity Ward), has also been working on the project.

"With the shake up there will be cuts in creative work like this," he said. I am very fed up with the tory administration, they are trying to be clever but they are losing the things people value."

"There was going to be a big forest festival but that too was thrown out - it shows a real lack of imagination."

Ian Soule, public spaces officer at Stroud District Council, said the project will be followed through but it will take time.

"The leg work has been done but the operation is still ongoing," he said. "The background to the process is already in place but it won't happen over night."