Trees facing axe worth £14 million
by Bill
It was reported in today’s Yorkshire Evening Post that arboriculturalist Sam Turner has calculated the value of trees to be cut down along the A660 at £14 million. In arriving at the figure, Mr Turner has used the CAVAT methodology which values trees based on the area of a cross section of their trunk. Despite the fact that the system is widely used by local authorities in the UK, including Leeds City Council, it was not used by Metro to value the more than 500 mature trees that would be cut down should the trolleybus scheme go ahead. Metro has merely said that it will replace trees to be cut down with saplings on a three for one basis. Mr Turner has calculated that this will cost Metro no more that £700,000.
An article in today’s Yorkshire Evening Post contains an interview with Mr Turner.
