Calls for stronger protection for trees

A charity is calling for more protections for trees.

Guernsey Trees for Life has written a letter to deputies, seeking stronger legal protection for trees and the environment; with Colin Dodd, from the charity, saying the island was losing "a lot of trees" to development.

He said: "We've had about four or five cases this year of that sort of thing happening. If there's a 200-year-old oak tree on-site, it's very easy just to put a bulldozer in there. All we're saying is we need some sort of blanket protection for trees."

The charity said tree protection orders tended to be "reactive" not "proactive", applying to trees once they were under threat. The BBC has approached the States of Guernsey.

He added: "We all need development but it needs to be in harmony with our environment.

"It's very easy to give that site a little more thought, jig things around slightly and include that tree or that part of the natural environment within that development."

In a letter to deputies, the charity said tree protection orders were "purely reactive".

It said the process was "slow and complex and does not automatically protect trees within new planning schemes".

The letter said trees were only protected after threat, leaving them "unprotected against sudden felling or development."

The charity said it believed trees over a certain size should be protected by default.

"We could exempt certain species of course," Dodd said.

"All we're saying is we need some sort of blanket protection for trees."

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