Failed street trees.....

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

London Plane trees (imported from Italy) at >£1000 a piece all failed. I'll see if I can capture the i-player interview / news piece from the radio tomorrow

 

See FB Link (you may have to scroll down a bit, not sure how to link to an individual story from FB?) :

 

https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadioCornwall/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf

[Mick Dempsey]

A grand each? I would be surprised if that was the real price.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

A grand each? I would be surprised if that was the real price.

 

£186 inc from Barcham!

 

https://www.barcham.co.uk/products/platanus-x-hispanica

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Grand a piece must include the extortionate on-costs that the council's arm's length contractor charged for planting....?

 

If a similar tree is available (retail) at £186 per piece, where has the £1000 per tree figure been drawn from? Is that the cost to supply and plant? Could it be the council's 'arms length contractor' that changed that sort of money? The contractor that is Cornwall council's 'preferred' contractor, the one that is 100% owned by Cornwall council and provides profit share back to Cornwall council? Just wondering.....

Edited August 18, 2016 by kevinjohnsonmbe

[stihlmadasever]

Grand a piece must include the extortionate on-costs that the council's arm's length contractor charged for planting....?

 

If a similar tree is available (retail) at £186 per piece, where has the £1000 per tree figure been drawn from? Is that the cost to supply and plant? Could it be the council's 'arms length contractor' that changed that sort of money? The contractor that is Cornwall council's 'preferred' contractor, the one that is 100% owned by Cornwall council and provides profit share back to Cornwall council? Just wondering.....

 

Its a valid point and as a recent experience has taught me just how ludicrously over inflated council pricing is.

I live in a ground floor flat,im one in 4 flats to get a new outer front door fitted the council quoted £689,a joiner gave us a quote for £366

We asked-just out of interest-for a copy of the breakdown in the costing for the job from the council...it never surfaced.

I find it perfectly plausable but gaulling that councils can spend a grand on buying,transporting and planting a tree.

[Kveldssanger]

I wonder what sort of non-existent aftercare these trees had... such a waste of 29 young trees.

[Mick Dempsey]

I wonder what sort of non-existent aftercare these trees had... such a waste of 29 young trees.

 

Agreed, 29 trees don't just fail.

 

Shoddy planting or aftercare, only explanation.

[Kveldssanger]

Agreed, 29 trees don't just fail.

 

Shoddy planting or aftercare, only explanation.

 

Probably both. I doubt there were any SUDS that fixed into underground irrigation systems for these planes, no silva-celled system, no nothing. Just a small hole and a lack of long-term vision. The price tag isn't so bad if they had survived, though supporting local nurseries would have been much better.

[pendleton8471]

I wonder what sort of non-existent aftercare these trees had... such a waste of 29 young trees.

 

Yeah and probably planted in hardcore. Without any watering there no water there be any water will naturally get to them there. I do a lot of L.A working and drives me crazy the total lack of aftercare

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

I wonder what sort of non-existent aftercare these trees had... such a waste of 29 young trees.

 

Hopefully there'll be more detail on the radio tomorrow. The afternoon show is a phone in "lunchtime with Laurence," and he LOVES to hold the LAs feet to the fire (and gives due praise where appropriate.)

 

It's not uncommon for lazy journo's to get the detail wrong, incomplete or politically biased (so as to whip up a frenzy) so there's not enough detail to get stuck into yet.

 

The people of Cornwall, I think, are more concerned with the potential loss of £29k rather than 29 trees and stories like this do nothing to raise the profile of new planting....