‘Unacceptable’: Silver birch trees wrongly axed by contractors working on junction

A dozen silver birches close to the Newton Bar junction were felled last week, as construction workers from Hinko began renovating the roundabout as part of a £10m scheme.

As part of the works, which were approved by Wakefield Council last month despite opposition from environmental campaigners, around 100 mature trees on the western side of the junction were due to be axed.

But the silver birch trees, which stood on the southern side of the site towards Bradford Road, were not supposed to be felled.

The council’s deputy leader, Jack Hemingway, said that the incident would be investigated, after he visited the site on Monday.

Writing on Facebook, Coun Hemingway said: “Last week I expressed my concern that a small group of silver birch trees appeared to have been felled to the south of the site (near Bradford Road) which should have been retained.

“The visit confirmed this and a small number of these trees appear to have been removed here outside plan, this is unacceptable and I have asked for this to be investigated.”

Just Transition Wakefield, who had opposed the roundabout’s revamp on environmental grounds, said it was “gutted” by the loss of the trees.

Group spokesman Stuart Boothman said: “People are genuinely upset about it, both people who live nearby and people who drive across the roundabout every day.

“It’s to the detriment of the visual environment there and to the detriment of the nature there.

“All the comments we’ve had about this as a group have been in agreement that this shouldn’t have happened.

“It’s disheartening, especially when we’re trying to work constructively with the council and build trust.”

In a bid to mitigate the environmental impact of the scheme, the council agreed to rewild a plot of land close to the roundabout when it was approved last month.

They also agreed to try to transplant some of the trees on the western side of the junction across to the rewilded area – a practice known as rootballing.

However, there is concern that too few have survived the axe and made that trip.

Coun Hemingway added: “We were shown evidence that approximately a dozen trees have been successfully rootballed over to the new nature area – while this is not as many as we might have hoped we know that the survival rate for transplanting a fully mature tree is low.

“Nonetheless I have asked for more details of why only these trees were saved and confirmation that the others were not suitable for rootballing.”

Hinko has been contacted for comment.

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