Yesterday I joined Orchard Park’s Community Council’s bulb planting event outside the Community centre. There is a London Plane tree between the Community building and the road on Central Avenue. It’s roots have been causing damage to the footpath, lifting up the paving slabs and making the pedestrian area quite unsafe.

Earlier in the year I organised a meeting with the County Council highways team and green teams. It became apparent that this area was Community council land so the broken paving slabs were a community council responsibility. The green team advised that simply lifting the paving slabs and laying bulbs should create a better space for the plane tree’s roots to grow and remove the trip hazards. This might limit future damage but would certainly solve current issues.

The slabs are heavy and it has taken a while to get to this stage but I am thrilled that after yesterday’s even we have increased nature and biodiversity, made the streetscape more attractive (or taken the first steps towards this it’s a bit muddy at the moment), made the street safer for pedestrians and approached this as a community project.