Tree-mendous task to protect Aldwick

A mammoth task by Arun District Council to update the tree protection orders around the parish is speeding up.

The total of new orders issued reached 207 at the start of this week.

A further 122 are left to be served on the owners of the land on which the trees have grown.

Arun’s leader and Aldwick East councillor Gillian Brown said: “We have now got someone working on this one day a week to move it on.

“We are moving much faster than we were. We are now serving five orders a week.”

Those orders which prompt objections require a visit to the tree by the council officer and a tree expert to see if the order should be confirmed or amended.

The renewal was begun by the council two years ago to clear up a patchwork of protection orders.

These covered Aldwick’s trees and dated back to a blanket protection of trees in 1958.

There were 392 orders which applied to 800 trees. Some orders covered individual trees and others clumps of four or more.

“All the trees still waiting to be served with new orders are still covered by the 1958 order,” Cllr Mrs Brown told Aldwick parish councillors at their November meeting.