Somerset Council has finished clearing at least 50 mature trees from Edithmead roundabout as part of plans to change the road layout. Anyone driving to the M5 junction, Burnham or Highbridge over the last few weeks cannot have missed the removal of the trees from the roundabout itself and the immediate vicinity.
However, there's no plan so far to replace the trees, apart from a wooly statement about a "full landscaping package for greenery after the project has concluded".
Conservationists recommend "succession planting" - that is, planting saplings of the correct species before removing mature trees. Succession planting helps to provide continuity for birds, insects and fungi in the immediate vicinity and without it, habit loss and wildlife loss are inevitable. No trees have been planted nearby.
Further, the removal of the trees flies in the face of the Lib Dem administration's own promises. With a climate emergency and a Net Zero target for 2030, the council pledged to plant 240 hectares of trees per year - the equivalent of about 350 football pitches. This is more even than the Somerset Lib Dem manifesto pledged in 2022: 150,000 trees (60 - 100 hectares).
Local landowners and businesses are planting trees, but the council's contribution seems to be in the negative.
