February 2021

February 2021
19
Did you know Redbridge Council
maintains 40,000 trees and 128
hectares of woodland in the
borough? It’s a big job and takes a very
special team from Redbridge Council to
maintain it all.
The borough’s Arboricultural and Horticultural
team – made up of specially trained staff –
are responsible for the maintenance of the
council’s 21,000 trees on the streets, 19,000
trees in parks, schools, housing and welfare
sites, grass verges and shrubs on streets, and
assisting with maintaining council woodland.
To ensure the trees stay healthy and cared
for, my team carry out annual inspections
of all street trees to recommend work to
maintain them – and once every three years to
recommend pruning work.
Inspections on the remaining council trees
in parks, schools, housing, welfare sites and
woodlands are carried out on a three-year
rotation. Trees in the Wanstead and South
Woodford areas are due to be inspected for
pruning in 2022.
Trees are usually only removed when they are
dead or decayed, in line with council policy.
When pruning and felling is recommended,
the work is normally grouped by borough
wards and completed by the end of March
the following year. My team normally fell a
tree on the street to a waist-high stump and
then return to remove the stump just prior to
planting a replacement tree.
Planting is carried out between November
and March, and planned street planting in
Wanstead and South Woodford is aimed at
being completed between February and
March 2021.
In addition, there is also about 160,000 square
metres – equivalent to 22 football pitches
– of highway grass cut eight times a year,
and 20,000 square metres of highway grass
cut once a year as part of the Grow Zone
project to create wild flower meadows in the
borough to improve biodiversity. A quarter
of these Grow Zones are in Wanstead and
South Woodford.
Highway shrub beds – covering an area
equivalent to seven football pitches – are also
pruned up to twice a year, depending on the
obstruction they may pose to pedestrians and
vehicles.
Where weeds grow up in footpaths, kerb
edges and shrub beds on the street, my team
carry out a spot treatment with herbicide
to control growth up to five times a year, as
required.
We also work closely with the Neighbourhood
Street Scene Engagement team on numerous
community projects to spruce up the
borough’s neighbourhoods. These have
included:
• Installing railing planters and troughs
outside schools and business.
• The spring bulb giveaway.
• Tree planting within schools.
• Community adoption of shrub beds and
adopting street tree pits.
• Working with Trees for Cities, planting new
trees in east Ilford and a new woodland
near Seven Kings park.
Green spaces improve air quality, boost
wellbeing and make the borough
look and feel better. In addition, they
can provide healthy spaces for wildlife to
flourish.
Redbridge is one of the greenest boroughs
in London, and we want to make the most
of our green spaces so local people can
enjoy them now and for years to come. To
help achieve this, the council is currently
working on a Green Urban Landscape
policy that will create a plan for managing
and improving council greenery across
the borough.
For more information on the work of
Redbridge Council’s Arboricultural and
Horticultural team, visit wnstd.com/trees
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