Gary Prentice

Ok. Explain Dianne Abbot.

Does the cap fit? Do you work in Planning. Are you inept? Are you inefficient? Are you paranoid? If it's getting as bad as this when you think everything is about you, I'll lay off teasing.

It would, if someone admitted to it! ***WARNING*** eGgS CAN'T KEEP SECRETS..

Bloody amateurs, should be consulting an expert, shouldn't they Eggs (Learnt my lesson after spending a couple of days trying to attempt to unblock our blocked drain before being told it was the utilities problem by eggs like.... sticking to trees now.)

I went to Leicester to college, there's some rarer planting down there as well as dome magnificent trees.

Fixed that for ya!

He’s probably given up with you and will agree to anything, just so you go away ?

Definitely, I’m told if your good everyone comes to you. No one bothers with the time-servers. its always been the planning officer letting the team down, with this fellow doing that job things should be so much better.

You’re right, I’ll email the head of the council who I complained to about the last one.

It must be difficult Stubby. How long can you search for before you forget what you're searching for?

Apparently not! There's one local to me, not sure if he/she is cross dressing/transgender/trans sexual or transporting (don't care) but it involves a funny little story. We were working on a bit of a contentious site, dismantling some trees when he/she turned up. I'll stick with he to make things easy. He said that he'd phoned the council to complain and someone was coming out. It was disgraceful that yet more trees were being felled, yada, yada. I bit upset but not so emotional that he'd stopped listening. Anyway this went on for a while until the site manager stuck his head out of the cabin, so we pointed him out and said "he's in charge here, speak to him" The thing was this fellow was well dressed and built and it was hard to tell if you didn't know, the adams apple gave it away to the uninitiated eventually. So he disappeared into the site cabin for ten minutes. When he came out he came back and asked if there were any logs going spare (I've complained about you felling but have you any free wood! ) Off he toddles... The site mangers face when he came out of the cabin was a picture , well he didn't come out as such, just stuck his head out cautiously to ensure that the coast was clear. "That was a man!!!" "We know." "You bas*@$s!, I was talking to her, him, whatever before I realised, then didn't know where to look! I couldn't look at his face once I realised" I heard the site manager used to hide if he saw him passing after that.

Moving it it the heat wasn't the best bet. What is probably happening is that a lot of the tiny fibrous roots, that are involved with taking water up, were lost in the transplanting process. Then replanting in full sun the tree is losing water (transpiration) without the ability to take up as much as it needs because there's insufficient roots to do so. These small, almost microscopic roots do grow quickly and trees are constantly replacing them, so don't give up up. To add to it's distress, without being staked the movement of the tree in the wind can tear those small roots, so they're trying to extend into the surrounding soil and then being damaged as the tree/stem/roots move in the wind - secure the root system! You don't need a big stake, put a couple of stakes either side of the planting hole with a timber cross bar (square or rectangular in section) close to the bottom of the stem. Use a proper tree tie, with a cushion between the stem and supporting cross piece and secure the stem. The idea is to secure the roots in place (movement of the stem above will actually encourage the stem to thicken) The plastic ring could be inhibiting water getting around the roots to where it's needed, can't judge without knowing just how porous it actually is. Preference though would be to remove it and replace it with a good organic mulch, composted woodchip is great. A nice big circle with a radius as big as you can bare to look at (close to a yard/metre if possible. The organic mulch will reduce evaporation of the water in the soil and help keep it moist - when you water the tree, really water it not just a bucket or two which moistens the top layer of the soil and encourages roots near the surface that then get drought prone if watering stops/it's hot and dry - you want to encourage deeper roots where the moisture level is more consistent. Will it survive? I don't know. All you can do is to ensure that the surrounding soil contains water for whatever roots are present and hope for the best. It doesn't look too bad yet but could go ever way. Not knowing your climate I can't judge whether it's going to continue to worsen because it's losing water quicker than it can take it up. You could however lift it again, pot it up and move it somewhere cooler and more shaded to give it a chance to grow some roots before planting it out again when/if it recovers. Good luck.

I do try not to be critical of the LA as a whole and save my focus for the individuals whose ineptitude and efficiency cause me problems. In the current fiscal climate you couldn't pay me enough to be a TO, it's not worth the aggro. I actually admire the dedicated tree officers who are reasonable, helpful and even pragmatic that assist me to do my own job. In their position I think that I would have thrown in the towel a long while back.

I'm normally complaining a planning departments and their inefficiently in providing information and determining applications within a reasonable period of time, but I'm gobsmacked today. There's been some changes in my local LA, one of the arb lads has come off of the tools and is now dealing with the whole application process, assessing the works, the tree and writing up the decision to be signed off by the head of planning. He's a nice lad, helpful on the phone/email and seems to be all the ball. Anyway, I've a site, with no protection, that borders on an Area TPO and conservation area with an indistinct boundary. It's caused me headaches for years, right back to when the residential development (with the area TPO) was developed, working out who owned what and what was protected. We've a fair bit of work to do on the commercial, unprotected, site but one tree between the two sites, that may or may not be protected, needs a bit of pruning. So a few days ago, I rang the TO to explain the situation and to see what mapping he had. He sent some plans showing the CA and area TPO boundary, plus two individual trees - one within the Area and one outside. Yep, the one outside is my sycamore I submitted the app yesterday morning, along with a note asking that as soon as it was determined could he let me know, so we could get on. I'm happy enough with an email saying okay and then getting the consent form at some later date. Fifty minutes after submitting, I get an email to say that the application has been reviewed, no problem with the specification and we may proceed Bearing in mind that this isn't a hazardous tree or anything, I appreciated that, it's just an application to reduce back some encroaching limbs, so I was expecting something in around 4 weeks or more.. This morning, 23 hours after submitting, I get the full written consent form (Can anyone beat that?) I've never had that before in 30 years. I think that they've either got him chained to his desk 24/7 or they've given me my own personal planning/tree officer after all the fuss I've kicked up over the last few years We're all quick to complain, but when someone puts themselves out, that should also be broadcast. I can go back to my client a hero, cos I've sorted the planning out and the work can be done as soon as we can schedule it, because of our 'relationship' with the arb officers, so he's made me/us look good. What a star!

Mick, obviously the tree had grown too big and therefore dangerous, so had to be 'reduced'. Don't you know nuffin bout trees?

In hindsight, I should have put the first wife through, I'd have been out by now! But yes rings, not wives (and I'm only on number two, I'm a slow learner)

I don't know enough to answer that question, but I think that it depends on the pollutant. The chemical composition of some things changes to less harmful constituent parts etc. Basically, trees/vegetation are good. I seem to remember of a big project in Manhattan a fe years ago where surface water ran through planting beds before flowing into the Hudson to clean the water. Previously the run off from surface water was so bad it was killing fish.

Wotcha talking about, fool?

Clients are telling us that that is the impression they're getting locally.

If their own gang was 100% self sufficient in training costs, equipment and everything else that a private contractor shells out, fair enough. When ratepayers contribute to a new chipper for us, then the playing field is level.

Could have been worse, he could have put the lotion round his own finger and yanked your ring

The bioremediation properties of trees is interesting when you start to look into it, they even improve the water quality of road surface water run-off by trapping copper and brake lining dust, before it gets into watercourses.

I stopped wearing a wedding ring after the third one went through the chipper!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1vzLWp9eSA So this was based on you?