Forum Topic

Windmill Road northside

LBH's footsoldiers have moved in this morning with their chainsaws and are removing the first of the remaining mature trees to be needlessly destroyed. LBH are super efficient at killing off healthy trees, as we know only too well. Next for us is the removal of all off-street parking and double yellows going in on the entire street. I am filming and shooting all of this, to what end, I am not sure. I have lived in Windmill Road for 34 years. It is my home. My home. LBH have gradually but determinedly ruined it. We are now in the endgame. It's heartbreaking but we are leaving Brentford. Over this? Yes, over this. The estate agents are doing very brisk business in our immediate area. People aren't stupid. But councils are.

Mike Paterson ● 1537d21 Comments

At the junction with the Great West Road (on the west side opposite the garage).. I notice that the white wall (with the historic "Performance Cars" painted on it)...has now disappeared behind hoardings...suggesting that developers are moving in at this location too.The changing face of Brentford indeed.

Jim Lawes ● 1494d

What happened to the trees - have they all been chopped down?

Reg Ghosh ● 1496d

I'm not clear on what trees are to be planted but trees have to mature to have any sort of carbon impact.Lime trees and Plane trees are very effective, some of the varieties being lauded as effective are not so good but are easy maintenance and smaller.But it ought to be joined up thinking by now. Rotation of street trees.  New ones need to be planted and established in advance to those that become aged or diseased or, in this case too large for the pavement and road to be replaced without a significant blow to the immediate environ.Plane trees can be carcinogenic and the genus variety that produces the seed balls can give bad eye and throat irritations as well as asthma attacks. Known for 70 years so most under that age found in streets are generally the safer varieties.It's a shame but Windmill Road is a Bus Route and with so much densification on the cards, will become an even busier route for goods and services as well and for local people. It's less industrial than it was but odd that it was never widened a little when the opportunity existed 40 years or so ago when it was even busier.

Raymond Havelock ● 1532d

Councils are always either venal or incompetent on social media. Or both.So would you like to give us your view on the competency of the LTN debacle. Perhaps you could even enlighten us to just how much of our money was wasted.

Robert Ayres ● 1534d

I was sad to read your post. I think it's quite clear that the socialist zealots running the borough are doing everything they can to breakup and destroy local communitiesespecially if the area contains homeowners. It's divide and conquer. All we can do is to encourage as many as possible to kick them out at the next election.

Robert Ayres ● 1534d

Alas the trees needed to go.  They were wonderful mature trees but do not allow enough space for someone in a wheelchair to comfortably pass, and I struggled with a buggy when taking my 1st son to the little school nursery around the corner.. I did chuckle at the other option of compulsory purchase order to grab some peoples gardens :-), if that were to happen I bet the residents would be buying chainsaws and doing the job themselves! Also Im surprised at all the uproar now, there was a full consultation in 2019, (here https://haveyoursay.hounslow.gov.uk/traffic-and-transport/windmill/) and the pdf shows the 5 trees removed and the 5 trees to be planted. I also read somewhere that new trees are better carbon sinks than old mature trees, but I think that refers to new trees that have grown a bit... It had to be done alas, I wish they'd put 7 trees in , instead of just 5

Angelo R Santagata ● 1534d

There would of course have been another option in order to rescue the mature trees . The compulsory purchase of sections of front gardens to widen pavements  and removal of the concrete which inhibits water supply . Just imagine the uproar that would create. Widening of pavements here is definitely not an option . Two buses do not pass each other comfortably as it is .

David R Rowlands ● 1534d

Interesting. I followed the Sheffield City Council/Amey street trees debacle [scandal] with interest, and the justifiable anger and the role of the council in the wholesale destruction of that city's green assets. So many fantastic mature street trees were felled needlessly. To point out the obvious, once this type of tree felling is done, it cannot be undone or easily fixed.Yes, Windmill Road is fairly narrow, but hey, LTNs anyone? I remain convinced that it would have been possible to implement a creative pavement build-out that would have helped slow down the traffic and even, gasp, make people adhere to the supposed 20mph limit.We live under the flightpath to LHR in a hugely polluted capital city. We need all the trees we can get. And we need to try and hang on to the beautiful mature trees that we have.

Jo Francis ● 1535d

"Is the road wide enough to be narrowed by about 4 feet?"No. It's a bus route, a B-road and pretty narrow.Councils are always either venal or incompetent on social media. Or both. 

Guy Lambert ● 1535d

Is the road wide enough to be narrowed by about 4 feet?

Mark Gormley ● 1535d

I completely agree with Jo Francis - a pavement build out would be the ideal way of dealing with this problem.

Ian Speed ● 1535d

Day 3, tree three coming down and the tree killers are getting closer to us and our beautiful pair of limes (I think!) one of which has nesting magpies. Devastated. I can't see our trees escaping the chainsaw, but if Guy Lambert is to be believed, three should be it. We'll see.

Mike Paterson ● 1536d

What you say is true. But if it were only fiscal considerations, there would by *some* justification perhaps, some rationalisation. I think it goes much further than that, including but not limited to, straight incompetence.

Mike Paterson ● 1536d

So where are they, Guy? You have had ample time. LBH could have put some in ages ago to show good intent and to assuage local ill feeling. But no. Just contempt. Well unlike most roads hereabouts, contempt is a two way street.

Mike Paterson ● 1537d

Decades of avoiding proper regular maintenance would have negated this.Even pruning is carried out to minimise the cost of leaf clearance rather than the root growth or benefit of the treesI don't think anyone can put a fiscal cost on mature trees, they are priceless and invaluable.  But then again costs and fiscal values are being created and placed on anything nowadays.

Raymond Havelock ● 1537d

The second one is coming down as I type. :-(((

Mike Paterson ● 1537d

More should be done to retain our mature trees, which are hugely valuable community assets worth tens of thousands of pounds each. The amenity and environmental benefits of mature trees far outweighs the usual replacement 'lollipop trees' that often die or are snapped off within months. It's also nesting season. Interested to know why it wasn't possible to 'build out' an extra area of pavement around the other side of the tree, creating a bit of traffic calming in the process. But then, when you see what's going on in Boston Manor Park, the future for trees in this borough looks bleak.

Jo Francis ● 1537d

Sad to see these big trees go but the pavements along this bit of Windmill road are  in a treacherous condition and the sign of not just wheel chair users but the many elderly who struggle with poor pavements and trying to get past with walking aids and buggies makes it hard to see how both the tree and road safety can be accommodated.I hope the replacement trees are not 'low maintenance' ornamental types and are proper indigenous varieties that will retain the traditional ambience of the local envirions

Raymond Havelock ● 1537d

There will be 6 trees planted in Windmill Road to replace the three lost. I hate these mature trees going too, but we have a legal and moral duty to provide usable pavements for wheelchair users, and that was impossible with these trees in place.

Guy Lambert ● 1537d

More pedestrian friendly I think is supposedly the thrust of all of this. It's the second round of the tree removal though. At round 1 the LBH said they'd be a replacement programme including, for example, 3 outside the row of shops opposite the Globe (formerly David's Newsagent etc). Needless to report, there hasn't been a single one planted.

Mike Paterson ● 1537d

Very depressing to read.  The Ealing Road trees pruned to within an inch of their lives earlier this Spring are still in shock and show no signs of coming into leaf.  And I don't blame them.  Are the Council replacing the lovely trees in Windmill Road with younger ones or just getting rid altogether?  If the former, they won't be cared for and will no doubt die, and if the latter, why? Those trees are/were a real source of joy and I can't understand the reasoning for destroying them completely.

Cathy Jones ● 1537d