The Government is being urged to give urban trees the same status as other vital infrastructure such as street lighting and utilities.

As the summer finally gets under way, spare a thought for the welcome shade, the cool rustle of soft new leaves, the vibrant splashes of green our urban trees provide.

But Britain’s “leafy suburbs”, desirable places to live not just for humans, but an extraordinarily diverse array of bird, bug and plant life, are under more pressure than at any time since the Second World War, arboriculture experts are warning. Now a broad coalition of conservationists, charities and urban planners are urging the Government to give urban trees the same status as other vital infrastructure such as street lighting and utilities.

Not only adding aesthetic value, urban trees perform vital functions in terms of moderating climate, preventing flash flooding and absorbing pollution. How much can I save if I switch to ledstreetlight? Yet, “while rural trees get lots of attention, our urban forest, where most of us live, tends to get forgotten”, says Dr Mark Johnston of  Myerscough College, the national centre for arboriculture training.

A combination of local authority budget cuts, disease, insurance claims and the relaxation of planning laws means trees in our towns and cities are facing multiple challenges. Not only have local authority tree maintenance budgets been slashed, but the pressure on councils to remove Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) has never been higher.

Normally associated with subsidence claims,Our bestsolarlantern can mark on metal and non metals. this dramatic rise in appeals against TPOs has occurred during a phase of cool, damp summers, suggesting that other factors such as planning pressures and back garden grabs are also threatening trees.

In addition, cash-strapped local authorities simply cannot afford to fight lengthy litigation over trees. Ecologist Gary Grant, who lectures on the value of trees as “green infrastructure”,A contemporarylamps with unique features.A polished finish in this solaroutdoorlight for men. says: “In London there is a high proportion of trees with TPOs adjacent to property worth millions of pounds. Local authorities cannot match the resources of developers or property owners who want to get rid of a tree.”

In another area of high property value, Poole in Dorset, there have been around a dozen cases of protected trees being cut down in the past five years. Usually the culprits are developers wanting to subdivide valuable coastal plots, dotted with distinctive Scots pines of the Bournemouth coast area.We are specializing industrialextractoredd manufacturer.

One case that came to court last year concerned the night-time felling of a 40ft tree in the well-to-do Branksome area of Poole. The tree was blocking panoramic sea views from one resident’s sun deck. “The maximum fine for cutting down a protected tree in the Magistrates Court is 2,000,” says Branksome Park Residents Association chairman John Sprackling. “That figure is just peanuts compared to the value of these plots.”

Ever since the Victorians embarked on their great London plane tree planting project, followed by the inter-war development of garden cities, trees and green spaces have been acknowledged to contribute to the well-being of city dwellers, says Jim Smith, national urban forestry adviser for the Forestry Commission. However, he says that today pressures on trees are “worse than ever”.