trees?

[mosy]

@ leennewham: Well, a bit late for that now as decisions will have been made. Page 37 of the 84-page PDF refers to actual tree species, referring to Earl's Court Seagrave Road re-development. I lived in Seagrave Road shortly after arriving in London, not that that is relevant to anything Could only find generic references to trees rather than species otherwise.

I only got as far as page 44, because (a) life's too short for reading 84 pages of "trees are good" but mainly because (b) it refers to a case study in Minnesota where they swapped the paviours to pervious ones (J Robinson, apols if not JR, has said in effect why oh why didn't we (Syd) do that on renewal of our paviours, and in MN they planted trees as run-offs to cure storm drainage rather than replace the ageing sewer drains. I've asked an architect contact in MN what gives since Dec 2011. I'll let you know.

In some places there's no amount of trees would soak up water where the water table is likely to rise and the drains are clogged and the water has nowhere to go. Indeed, on Syd Road, Riney told me a while back that the water table was so high towards Lower Syd that tree roots would just rot

I'm not about to criticise whatever trees have been chosen, just curious as "wait and see" isn't really in my nature.

[Rachael]

I seem to remember white birch being mentioned.

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[JRobinson]

yes it was me - Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS).

slow the flow down of the water run off, and filter it before it gets to the concrete drain, to help reduce flooding events.

[jonathan_har]

Lee's point is a good one. Seating and lighting have no doubt (conjecture) been selected by the contractor, a result of the way the High Street works were no doubt (conjecture) procured which allows these decisions to be taken by the contractor whose interest is of course mainly cost saving resulting in the seating and lighting:

a) looking cheap and nasty
b) looking like nothing you have ever seen on a London street before and therefore totallly uncordinated with seating and lighting in London generally

[leenewham]

The trees in Fairlawn Park are fine. The trees in Home Park are fine. Other trees in Lower Sydenham are find. Not sure why Riney think the roots will rot. But I said this ages ago on this forum.

I talked to the contractors ages ago about street furniture and was assured that we would have bespoke street furniture. The examples given in the consultation were all of a high quality. Nothing like the mish mash of designs and finishes that has been installed.

Again, compaired to what we have been involved with elsewhere and seen installed in other boroughs, what we are stuck with is poor. Shame, it had a lot of promise, but as you said Mosy, it's too late now. Poor decisions have been made and the public have not been included. It could have been good. It could have been place making.

[JRobinson]

I don't know about Lewisham, but the local borough that I work for is very good at replacing street trees if they are removed for any reason.

there was another tree down on Fairwyn Rd too.

Hopefully with the new high st trees, and replacement of storm damaged ones we will end up with more than before.