Bristol should 'notice its trees' say campaigners marching through the city

"It’s just really, really sad. They mean a lot to these people"

A series of protest marches starting from different points across Bristol and meeting up at the Bearpit has been held to highlight the continuing threat to trees in the city.

They said trees in urban areas are vital for wildlife and for humans too - providing shade to stop hot days becoming unbearable - and too many are being lost to council plans and developers.

Campaigners came from Clifton - where residents have begun a legal challenge to the redevelopment of the Bristol Zoo site, over the loss of dozens of trees there - from Castle Park and from Bedminster, where the major plans to develop the Bedminster Green area are still controversial.

The march was staged as part of a national ‘Notice This Tree’ event, and organisers said they were walking to commemorate trees that have already been cut down, and highlighting others that are under threat.

They started in the St John’s Burial Ground area of Bedminster, moved on to Little Paradise, where a plan for a multi-storey car park will mean trees are cut down, and then to Bedminster Green itself, where plans for more than 330 build-to-rent flats, and the reopening of the Malago River, will see even more trees felled.

“We are here today because as part of ‘Notice This Tree’ event, which is a national intervention, in Bristol this weekend, we are walking to commemorate trees that are being lost or under threat in this case from development,” said one of those taking part, Andrew Kemp.

“These ash trees are our starting point but actually in Bedminster Green there are planning applications and highway works that have felled an awful lot of trees, and we’re told that replacement trees won’t be in the local area because they are not able to find sufficient sites for them.

“As part of other works, including infrastructure and highways, flood defences and the development applications, a lot of these trees, including some extremely unusual Lombardy poplars are going, silver birches around the car park, to make way for another multi-storey car park, which we’ve campaigned about previously.

“It’s just really, really sad. They mean a lot to these people. Without these trees it really does feel like the heart of Bedminster Green is going to go,” he added.