Wednesday 19 December 2012

Santa's Little Hampers

Anthony braves the cold
Well, not so little - quite a substantial hamper actually! 

This was a wonderful collaboration between our incomparable helpmate Tiffany Childs (who collated our luxury christmas hamper containing £100 worth of seasonal goodies) and your Brockley Society Tree Wardens and Brockley Society helpers. 

The weather held and Saturday 8th December dawned frosty and bright. Tickets fairly flew from our hands and by the end of the day we had raised a magnificent £247 which will be used for a street tree related project in the coming year. 

Staffed from 10 am to 2 pm by a succession of Brockley Society volunteers and your unflagging Tree Wardens we were heartened to talk to many of you about your appreciation of our local trees and your concerns about their maintenance and replacement. There is clearly a lot of interest and good will out there. 

Thank you all for your support and encouragement, and congratulations to Ian whose winning ticket was selected at the end of the day. 

Monday 10 December 2012

Pinnacle PSG

On 6th November this year we posted the story of a Brockley resident who returned home from work to find the apple tree that had adorned her front garden felled to the ground (see here). 

The matter was taken up by Darren Johnson, our Green Party Brockley ward councillor who asked the company contracted by Lewisham Council (Pinnacle PSG who manage 1838 properties in Brockley under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) agreement) for an explanation.

Pinnacle have apologised for the failure to notify the residents of the house concerned of the tree felling work that was requested and say they have put measures in place to prevent this happening again in future. 

They point out that since the beginning of 2011 they have submitted only six applications for tree related work in the conservation area of which three were requests for felling. 

Finally, Pinnacle acknowledge how important trees are to local residents and communities and assure us that they will replace the lost trees with other 'trees or shrubbery' that will not damage drains or foundations. Negotiations will be initiated with affected residents in due course. 

We look forward to being able to report the replacement of these losses in the New Year.