Network Rail to resume chopping on 10 January
Network Rail’s chainsaws are coming back to Strathbungo on 10 January, but after five months of pressure by local residents, our elected representatives and the Glasgow City Council, it will perhaps not be as much of a “massacre” as first feared.
“In any case, we have won important concessions as regards a replanting scheme,” says Strathbungo Cllr Malcolm Cunning.
Since the major public protest led by the Strathbungo Society during August and September, including nightly vigils at the railway bridge, things have gone somewhat quiet on the trackside, although there’s been a good bit of manoeuvring behind the scenes.
At the height of the protest in mid September, it apparently dawned on someone at NR that they would require a road closure to take out the mature trees along Moray Place– an administrative process which normally takes six weeks and the Council was in no mood to fast track their application.
Meanwhile, autumn arrived, leaves fell and temperatures dropped, allowing a cooling off period in which more productive negotiations could begin.
At a meeting on 6 December, officials from Glasgow Land Services told Network Rail that they would be willing to coordinate a replanting scheme and find funding through various sources to allow for a more comprehensive and sympathetic scheme than NR had been planning.
NR agreed to that proposal and, importantly, also agreed to allow Gerry Gillespie, the Council’s Arboriculturalist, to draw up a replanting scheme based on NR’s list of acceptable species. He will do this in consultation with both the Strathbungo Society and Glasgow Tree Preservation Society.
So the upshot is, as Malcolm puts it, “Network Rail are getting what they wanted-that is, most of the mature trees will be coming down. However, there will now be a sensible replanting scheme that takes into consideration the long-term good of the conservation area and the wishes of local residents. It will obviously take some time to mature, but the green corridor will be preserved.”
What happens next?
The road closure order on Moray Place comes into effect on Monday, 10 January.
Work is expected to start right away, beginning at 1-10 Moray Place and proceeding in block long segments over the next fortnight.
Land Services will provide a traffic management plan so that closure of various blocks will cause as little disruption and/or risk as possible.
As expected, works will include removal of the majority of the mature trees.
The 120-year-old beech tree at the railway bridge has major structural faults and cannot be saved. Because it’s located at a junction, this will also have implications for traffic management while felling is underway.
NR are aware of their responsibility for eradicating a large patch of highly-invasive Japanese knotweed on the Darnley Road side of the tracks.
It is hoped that the first phase of the replanting scheme can be carried out during the dormant period before March. The remainder will have to wait for next November.
NR also have to address the issue of railings where these have been removed or damaged.
“We have been reassured that, unlike trees, fencing will come under Council planning control for the conservation area so we should not have to worry about an inappropriate fence going up,” Malcolm said.
However, as we say, watch this space!
So did we win or lose?
The Strathbungo Society has taken a reasonable approach throughout the protest, recognising the genuine safety issues caused by leaves on the lines and also the dire condition of many of the trees after years of neglect by Network Rail and its predecessor Railtrack.
It might have been convenient to dismiss local residents as “tree huggers”, but nobody believed that except Network Rail.
Says Strathbungo Chairman Kevin Kane: “When it comes to health and safety issues, the odds are always stacked very heavily in NR’s favour. They did not have to reveal their assessment to us, they were not liable to planning consent even for the conservation area and the Council had little leverage.
“In the face of what seemed to be an unstoppable force, we were able to commission an independent tree survey and pull together a pretty effective campaign of publicity and peaceful protest. And it wasn’t just the usual suspects-it’s amazing how many new people we met over the late summer and early autumn and we hope they will continue to work with us for the good of the community.
“We also got a lot of help from our elected officials-Malcolm Cunning in particular, and also Mohammad Sarwar MP, Cllr Stephen Currren, Gordon Jackson MSP. As a matter of fact we had cross party support from Bashir Ahmed, Nicola Sturgeon, Rosie Kane, Alan Rodger, the Greens and the Lib Dems-it got pretty crowded out there on that railway bridge!”
The truth is, we will never know what might have happened if we had not raised our protest although communities all over Britain-notably Burnside, during the summer-have learned the hard way about Network Rail’s heavy-handed approach to “vegetation management”.The trackside might have been just as devastated as Blairbeth Road (see the Burnside pictures in our gallery).
Says Kevin: ‘I think it’s going to be much better than it would have been otherwise. The green corridor is going to be designed and replanted so we won’t be left with just the random vegetation that grew up over years of neglect. We also brought people together to meet and discuss an important local issue - that’s popular, neighbourhood-style democracy!’
Thanks to all who turned out to watch, witness and question what Network Rail were doing. And remember, the chainsaws come back on 10 January so the danger is by no means over yet.