Fears over trees in orange dots riddle
RESIDENTS have been left perplexed after mysterious orange marks appeared on trees in their neighbourhood.
It was initially feared they had been made to identify trees due to be removed to make way for a new cycle lane in Heald Green, Stockport.
Around 40 trees on Wilmslow Road bore the marks – far more than were expected to be lost to the scheme – leading to horrified residents tying ribbons around their trunks as a mark of protest. To date a petition against the felling of trees on Wilmslow Road has attracted more than 1,600 signatures.
The cycle path is being built in connection with Bloor Homes’ controversial 325-property development on fields previously owned by the Seashell Trust, which was approved on appeal in 2020. But the council says it has not made the markings and, following a recent review, only around a dozen trees are expected to be felled.
Meanwhile the ward councillors – all Independent Ratepayers – say their enquiries have also established they were not made by Bloor Homes or its contractors. The mystery has led to the trio – who opposed the development before it was approved on appeal – to suggest it may have been a deliberate attempt to mislead people over the number of trees that would be lost.
But some residents claim they have failed to keep locals properly informed – and a council letter which said work was to begin in February/March led to people drawing their own conclusions.
A statement intended for social media and supplied to the Local Democracy Reporting Service reads: “You, the councillors, allowed the information vacuum to exist while residents responded to the only information they had: the letter from SMBC [the council]. The orange dots were seen at the same time and were placed there by someone with a specific role. The note [on the ratepayers Facebook page] attempts to cast residents as the guilty party by leading readers to believe the residents placed these orange dots on the trees.”
The ward councillors – led by Coun Anna Charles-Jones – say they have been both responsive and responsible since the issue came to light.
In a statement they said: “We convened a site visit involving all three councillors and several council officers as soon as we possibly could. Following this, three working days after our first statement, we were able to put out the clarification statement which we feel was a reasonable time frame given the complexities of the situation.”
The councillors say they will continue to update the public as new information becomes available, while residents are always welcome to contact them directly with any concerns.
A council spokesperson said: “We
have not yet confirmed plans ahead of construction, however after a review, we have reduced from approximately 20 to about a dozen, the number of trees we expect will need to be removed. We do not know who has recently sprayed approximately 40 trees with orange dots, but this implies significantly more trees to be removed than would be required by the proposed scheme.”
Bloor Homes was contacted for comment.