Residents are asked to get in touch if they see anyone causing damage to the borough’s trees following the vandalism to a number of trees in St Faith’s Country Park. This is following a number of young trees being broken and pulled up from the ground at a planting site.
Brentwood Borough Council are in the midst of an ambitious tree planting schedule in order to help protect the environment, increase biodiversity, clean up atmospheric pollution and maintain a diverse landscape around the borough.
Trees have been planted in several of our country parks, including St Faith’s. During recent inspection visits, several Black Pine trees have been removed from the roots and left out on the ground. The Council’s greenspaces team have ruled out mischievous wildlife as the cause of the damage and suspect vandalism. These particular trees were planted during the winter and by spring had already grown 100 millimetres. Several trees, including newly planted ones, have now been vandalised in the area.
Chair of Brentwood Borough Council’s Green and Clean Committee, Councillor Barry Aspinell said, “The Council is working extremely hard to reduce carbon to mitigate the effects of climate change and increase our biodiversity, but behaviours such as this make our work very difficult.
“Trees are planted around the borough to help remove pollutants from the air, as well as providing many other benefits to wildlife and our health and wellbeing. It’s terrible that these trees have been mindlessly vandalised. This type of irresponsible behaviour and mindless vandalism cannot and should not be tolerated within our community.
“To that end, I will be discussing the issue with our enforcement team, with the possibility of putting in new technologies that could not only identify these vandals, as a means of possible prosecution but also as a preventative measure for the future. Please report any tree vandalism to us and if it is a newly planted tree, try to replant as soon as possible or report to us so that we can.”
Residents are asked to report any tree vandalism to the Council by emailing enquiries@brentwood.gov.uk.
ENDS