Legacy pavement repair and tree planting programme

A borough-wide survey of footways has been carried out to identify historic locations where trees have been removed and repairs to the pavement are needed to allow for replacement planting to take place.

The arising data has been used to make a bid to our Climate Change Steering Group and just under £1M has been awarded to allow for a repair and replanting programme to be completed during the 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years.

Repairs are underway for the current financial year and have been prioritised into two areas:

1. Locations that have been identified as having low canopy cover (0-9% canopy cover) and medium canopy cover (10-20% canopy cover)
2. Locations where tree removal has taken place during the last removal and replacement period (where trees have been felled during the period spanning 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022)

Repair and replacement process

The order of operational works involved in the repair process will be in the following steps:

1. Site works will take place to remove existing surfacing and any tree organic matter that impedes repair (such as stumps and surface roots).
2. A finished level surface will be created. This will include the area of the former tree however this is temporary and necessary to ensure that levels are correct.
3. Our Arborist Contractor will follow repair by creating a new tree pit, this will consist of edging and a root barrier that is specified to minimise the risk of future paving damage through deflecting roots away from the pavement surface.
4. Replacement trees will be planted within the next available season following repair (planting season runs from November through to March).

Other tree planting

We have prepared a planting schedule which includes sites where repair is not required. This schedule identifies where planting is due to take place over the 2022-23 season.

Many completed legacy repair locations have been included in this list.