Planted in memory of WWI heroes... but council wants to hack down trees to save cash
THEY stand tall and proud – living memorials to a group of young men who fought and died for their country in the Great War.
The trees commemorate soldiers who attended the same local primary school and included a 17-year-old who should never have been near the action.
But council chiefs in Sheffield are set to ignore public anger and press ahead with a plan to chop down 41 of these official First World War memorial trees as part of a road management scheme.
A report published yesterday claimed it would cost £500,000 to save the trees and involve raiding budgets of vital services such as social care to fund it. The figures have been ridiculed by campaigners as ‘grossly exaggerated’ but the city council’s cabinet seems certain to back the felling of the war memorial trees at a meeting next Wednesday.
Almost 100 years after the trees were planted, contractors will use chainsaws to fell what many regard as sacred living memorials.
Contractors have surveyed every street to decide which trees are dead, dying, diseased, dangerous, causing damage, or could obstruct pedestrians or drivers.
Those in any of these categories are listed to be chopped down under the council’s £2.2billion private finance deal with Amey to maintain Sheffield’s roads.
Around 5,500 trees have been felled under this long-term contract, causing protests in the city, but the war memorial trees have provoked the most anger. The main memorial site on Western Road is set to lose 23 of the remaining 54 London plane trees planted in 1919 in ‘grateful appreciation’ of former pupils of Westways Primary School who fought in the war. There are five other streets with war memorial trees recommended for felling.
Researchers believe 64 residents died fighting for king and country. There were originally 97 memorial trees. Today the remaining trees are up to 50ft tall and the roots of some make pavements bumpy. In a bid to placate residents, the report recommends planting 300 trees to create ‘new memorials’ in parks.
Alison Garner, a relative of one of the soldiers, Ernest Beck, said: ‘They have grossly exaggerated what it would cost to save these trees. Trees have been planted in memory of particular people who made the ultimate sacrifice but they just don’t care.’
The council said: ‘No decision on these trees has yet been taken.’
‘They just don’t care’