Dean Lofthouse

This thread has been hard work for me...I seem to be the minority, so could do without my comments being described as waffle

carls idea, or if you have a mig just grind the seam edge, split the can then run a bead of weld along the seam again

That's a very disrespectful comment

Planes I think Rob. Dave, Your in denial mate, do you like the pollards ?

These are the trees that are memorable to so many who see them.....but for the right reason. If these were on the same street in york, they would be a tourist attraction in their own right. This is the way I would like to see work on problem trees in the UK moving toward to be able to control their size in that enviroment and have something which most see as aesthectically pleasing

The danger is there Dave, otherwise the work would not have been carried out and I,m not saying it has happened, but you can bet they have dropped a limb off that triggered the survey. Habitat formation is good, yes I,m all for that as you know, but not right at the side of one of the busiest footpaths in the country

Yes.....please do

That's what I would like to see here Rob, instead of the butchered monstrosities that we do see over here. Every year I travel by coach from either chamberry or geneva to the skiing in the Alps, I look out for badly pruned trees and very rarely see any. All I do see is hundreds of well managed pollards with cracking well established pollard heads. Pollard heads take some getting established, but then you have the work of management of them coming in every few years, which would create work for all of us and keep customers happy by having a managed good looking tree. Instead all we have is a cycle of ruining trees not managing them and eventually having to remove them.

No worries! I havent and in total I have 13 years behind me I bet you haven't tried to pass them off as pollards or try to justify in your own mind that it is good for the tree and good practice I have reduced an 80ft Lombardy windbreak to 60ft which was situated on private waste land away from the public and that was done as a subbie with my mewp hire. I have retopped many trees but never topped a virgin tree. Yet I,m doing better than ok, I have loads of fancy kit, my own 1.5 acre yard and still manage to pay my mortgage.

Spit it out Carl, can't do with cryptic

I've already explained

More like a go on the roundabout:001_rolleyes:

Future management is the big problem. Topped trees don't present a problem if they are managed, problem is they rarely are and only get seen to when attention is drawn to them through branch failure

Now we,re getting even more school ground See my post above

This is getting school ground. I too want to see pollarding in the uk rather than mutilated trees. These should have been taken down an replaced with maple which then should have been allowed to grow then made into street pollards, if the size of the original trees was a problem to the uni Let's go back to the beginning and not try to defend topping Why was the work carried out ? Because the trees were inspected by a consultant who found extensive rot pockets and decay. Why would he recommend reducing back to previous ? Because there was a risk of branch failure due to rot pockets and decay. what do you think caused the rot pockets and decay and why do you think the trees at the opposite side of the street do not have rot pocket or decay ? Because these trees had been topped in the past and the opposite side of the street haven,t. The rot pockets have formed at the topping cut sites. Why are the trees on the other side of the road still perfectly healthy and probably only require routine deadwooding and maintainance? Because they haven,t been topped in the past. The only reason I have brought pollarding into the conversation is because it was suggested that these trees have been pollarded....they haven't, they,ve been topped......my argument is there's a big difference. I couldn't give a toss if people go round topping every tree they come across really, just don't try and pass it off as pollarding, it isn,t. The good thing is now with all the litigation is that every branch failure that involves serious injury or death is investigated. So hopefully in future bad pruning practice will come back and bite a few asses, people may be walking off with cheques to pay there mortgages, but they can't walk away from their liabilities Here,s to litigation

Are you trying to tell me no-one has been killed from a branch failing. Is topping bad practice ? Would pollarding (originally ) have been a better option ? Would you rather see those street trees as beautiful pollard as you see where you are or would you rather see hat racks full of epicormic ? This ? Or this ? One takes skill and knowledge, the other doesn't.

Even in an extremely high footfall area with students sat under the trees most days eating lunch. Your right, to not consider that is just plain dumb bordering on neglegent

If that guy was in my area, I,d take his number, then when you go to quote jobs you don't want, tell them about this guy and if they want to give him a ring you,ll give them a written silly quote at less than cost. Soon teach them the finer arts of business

The ones on the castle side haven,t been touched before by the looks, it's just the university side limes that have been done Just a bit of info here too guys, in 2010 York topped 7.1m visitors / tourist. The main attractions are the minster and the castle, the castle is opposite these monstrosities.

How do I do a screen shot on ipad

Go to the end five on the right, it's easier to see as they have very few leaves on

Best way is just watch and see what happens to the smoke next time, see if it evaporates quickly into nothing or drifts with the wind and hangs around. With my motors, which where new or nearly new, the cloud was white smoke and it hung around creating a big smoke screen on the m62 I used to do a car boot at the side of the motorway and left the engine ticking over with the heater on to keep warm and then drive a 100 yards to the motorway and set off down the on ramp to the motorway leaving a smoke screen behind. I crapped myself the first time it happened till I sussed out what was happening. The same happened on my Landcruiser Amazon when it was left for an hour and a half ticking over to charge the battery, again when I set off it left a huge smoke screen and that was only three years old and extremely low milage.

Haha, yes, and leaves in the gutter and on the drive . After reading the tree report, they were retopped because of extensive rot pockets caused by the previous topping, which should be providing a lesson to all the toppers and loppers I would say a vast majority of so called tree surgeons don't have the knowledge or skill to create a pollard and most don't even know the consequences of topping a tree. Pollarding is a skilled job, topping is a bodge job The tree surgery business is a bit similar to the building business, there are thousands of builders out there that will just knock a hole through a wall and stick a lintel up without checking whether it's a supporting wall or having the knowledge to calculate whether the lintel is substantial enough to support the weight. Or even knock a chimney breast out and leave the remainder of the chimney supported on a wooden beam. Then there's the knowledgable builder who knows his stuff Anyone can setup as a builder and then pretend to know what they are doing Same in tree surgery, people setup with no prior knowledge then don't even bother to study and learn. I know a lot of tree surgeons that have never even bothered to pick a book up to even bother trying to learn in their whole career. These are the ones that haven't got a clue about the consequences of their action, both biologically for the tree and safety wise for the public. Anyone can take a tree down or cut big lumps off, just the same as anyone can knock a big gaping hole through a wall Sorry if I may upset someeople but ignorance and greed is rife in this tree work and " we have a mortgage to pay" or "someone else will do it" is no excuse for shoddy or bogey work. The reason these trees are being taken down or remutilated is just because someone didn't have a clue that their action ultimately ruined this historic avenue of trees which will eventually have to come down. At least the original butchers got a wage that week eh

Why were they retopped

Yeh, pilchards have only done half a job