Celebration as Milton Road trees are saved (Cambridge Liberal Democrats)

Cambridge Liberal Democrats <camlibdems@gmail.com>

Celebration as Milton Road trees are saved

September 24, 2008 2:28 PM

David Howarth with councillors Kevin Wilkins, Neale Upstone and Ian Nimmo-Smith CAMBRIDGE MP David Howarth and councillors are celebrating victory in the fight to save the Milton Road trees.

Replanting is to begin again after the county council bowed to local pressure and overturned its ban.

The news comes after months of campaigning and a petition signed by local residents.

"This shows what can be achieved by determined local campaigning," said Mr Howarth. "Local residents and councillors have finally managed to win a victory which will improve our city."

The decision, revealed in response to a question to Cambridgeshire County Council from Liberal Democrat county councillor, Kevin Wilkins, comes after years of neglect of the Milton Road trees.

Gaps had appeared in the planting after diseased and dying trees were removed and not replaced, leaving unsightly stumps.

The county council argued that replanting would not take place because future development in the area and a possible bus priority lane and cycleways on the road could lead to the trees being removed again.

But now the county council has agreed that replanting will start on the majority of the route. The area near the King's Hedges junction, however, may have to be held over until the guided bus service begins next year.

Welcoming the news of the replanting, Cllr Wilkins said: "I am delighted that the county council has finally seen sense and will replant the trees that have died; this is much better than the county's previous policy of neglect."

Cllr Julian Huppert, who had rallied the county's Cambridge traffic management committee to formally ask for the replanting to go-ahead, said: "For years the county council has dragged its feet on this. All it had to do was replant the missing trees. I don't know why it preferred to let unsightly gaps appear."