"Tree Madness" as borough runs out of trees!

1.15.08pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 4th Aug 2003

MP Vincent Cable has described as an "absolute madness" a ruling by the council that a resident who wants a tree outside his home, and is willing to pay for it, cannot have one because all the boroughs trees 'have been accounted for'.

One resident has been trying for eighteen months to get the council to plant a tree outside his house. He is more than happy to pay a contractor for a tree or to sponsor it but the council says 'no': there is a waiting list for new trees and it will not add him to it.

Vincent Cable said: "this is simply, bureaucratic stupidity by the council. The borough's trees are a legitimate source of pride and enhance our environment. Some residents are willing to pay for more of them. But the council operates like an old style Communist government: there are quotas and that is the end of it. Why, for goodness sake, can't it order a few more from the suppliers? There isn't a tree famine".

Vincent Cable gave other examples of the council's "ludicrous bureaucratic methods". A householder in Whitton planted two trees in his garden 17 years ago. They have now grown to a point where they dominate the bungalow and exclude light so he has offered to remove them and plant others to replace them nearby on the pavement. The council has raised an order to stop him, to preserve the 'visual amenity' of the area even though none of the neighbours object and there is no through traffic.

Vincent Cable said: "This is so absolutely potty. I have referred the matter to the Deputy Prime Minister who is responsible for local government. Richmond Council is making itself a laughing stock with these ridiculous, petty bureaucratic rulings".