Diseased trees tackled
Published Monday 18th October 10 in Council - news and information releases news
Seven diseased trees along Manners Way, Prittlewell, were removed today as part of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s ongoing tree management programme.
Five were cherry trees which had reached an advanced stage of decay due to a type of fungus called Ganoderma.
This destroys the inside of the trunk, making it soft and spongy, thereby weakening the tree until it could just topple over.
Another cherry tree had died. The seventh tree was a small crab apple tree which had stem decay and was in a very poor condition.
The Council’s Executive Councillor for Culture, Councillor Derek Jarvis, said: "When trees are so badly affected by disease there is no option but to remove them because they are highly dangerous.
"Our ongoing programme of inspection by qualified and experienced arboriculturalists enables us to detect such tree problems and remove the affected tree before it falls into the road, possibly onto passing pedestrians or onto people’s homes.
"We hand-delivered letters to nearby residents to inform them about these works beforehand and the tree removal was undertaken quickly, safely and efficiently by our contractors.
"We will replace these trees in due course. However, we cannot yet plant new trees in exactly the same locations, in case the fungus remains in the soil and attacks the new trees."