This week I had a walkabout in Podsmead with the city council’s tree officer.

We covered a lot of ground in the Tuffley Park area of the ward, and noted down a list of issues.

Whilst we get lots of contact and requests for tree works, there simply isn’t the budget or manpower to undertake everything we could do. Priority is given to dead, dying or dangerous trees. In general, healthy trees will be left alone as long as they are not a health and safety issue.

The storms earlier this year have also had a big impact on the tree team and their capacity, as well as of course Covid, which has delayed works.

Nevertheless, there are some works in the pipeline, which I will be informing the residents who contacted me about.

We also made plans for planting some new trees from the council allocation. This will need to be done with care and the help of the local community. I am delighted that Podsmead community groups are expressing an interest in helping with this.