Broadfield seems to be losing half its trees!

First of all there is some building work going on near Broadfield House. An area which used to house pre-fab council offices is being developed for housing. The only problem is that the new houses will need access and that means cutting a road through a piece of woodland. On the plus side, the work will result in a roundabout on Woodmans Hill, which ought to slow down the traffic there, which does get dangerous.

Nearer to home, the corner of our road has been excavated. It used to flood a lot, but now the small stream has been deepened and the drainage inlet unblocked. Unfortunately quite a few trees had to go to get the diggers in there. I’m sure everything will grow back in time, and that bit of woodland was a mess with lots of fallen trees, but it just looks a bit bare at the moment.

Even nearer to home, the plot of land a few doors from us has had all the trees cleared from it. Years ago there were plots for three houses, but only two were built, leaving the gap in the middle as empty space. It was no use for anything as the land is too steep for anyone to venture there, but the trees were decorative. Everyone knew that the third house would be built one day its just that the road looks strange with a bare space there and because it backs onto that stream, there is now a view right through to the main road.

I can’t even complain about any of it. I raised the issue of flooding up here many times with the council’s planning department, so I should be glad that it has been fixed, albeit on a much larger scale than I could have hoped for. The other two developments are ones which I voted for when I chaired the local planning committee. I might be many things, but at least I can now point at all this to prove I’m not a NIMBY! I’m still confident that everything will look OK when its finished, and have to remind myself that this is still the egg-breaking phase of making an omelette.