By Natalia Forero, Local Democracy Reporter
Airport bosses have been told by the city council they can’t butcher 25 trees by cutting off the tops and reducing their height, although the meeting heard the secretary of state could intervene under the Civil Aviation Act. Fourteen other trees will be cut for safety reasons.
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Fourteen trees will be cut down in an ancient woodland area near Southampton Airport because they are a ‘danger to the public’.
However, airport bosses have been told by the city council they can’t butcher 25 other trees by cutting off the tops and reducing their height.
Two planning applications about the loss of trees were debated at the latest city council planning meeting on Tuesday (Feb 20).
The first application, submitted by Southampton Airport, aimed to reduce the height of 25, including one Oak by over 13 metres, another by 12, and one Douglas Fir by over 10 metres in the woodland area at the Marlhill Copse in Bitterne Park, a woodland more than 200 years old.
The committee unanimously agreed with officers’ recommendation to refuse the application for the trees on the southern side of the airport since it would harm the area.
The second application, submitted this time by the local authority, told of the need to cut 14 trees in the ancient woodland since some suffer from a disease, canopy decline, or other structural issues, representing a risk to the general public.
Southampton City Council officers said: “There is ground safety. There are concerns about the conditions of the trees, and they represent a risk for the general public.”
The most significant felling would involve the removal of a large Monterey pine, which is infected by a disease called Phaeolus schweinitzii.
Phaeolus schweinitzii causes a brown cubical rot by degrading cellulose within the wood substrate. This leaves a stiff but brittle framework. A tree damaged in this way can fail due to a brittle fracture without warning.
At the site visit, officers were able to see new fruiting bodies on the tree stem. They confirmed that the decay disease infecting the Monterey pine was Phaeolus schweinitzii.
Officers said that the safety of visitors to the woodland or the adjoining properties “outweighed” the potential impact on the area’s special character.
However, the fells won’t impact the “special” character of the woodland since the cuts will not be concentrated in a single area and won’t be seen as deforestation.
To fill the loss, officers proposed to plant new Monterey pines, which is the species that dominate the wood, a red oak along with a swamp cypress and a mixture of common yew and hazel to form understory tree planting, with field maples being planted in more open areas.
With much regret, chair Cllr John Savage said: “This application relies on the expertise of the tree officers. With all that taken into account, it is sad that a number of trees will go, but they clearly are diseased, they cause a real problem, and they are unsustainable.”