church-street-leatherhead

Overview

Surrey County Council and Mole Valley District Council are inviting views on the proposal to replace the lime trees on Church Street in Leatherhead with birch trees. Taking this step is considered necessary to ensure that potentially slippery residue is not dropped onto the pavement around the trees when they are in full leaf.

During 2017 Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) worked in partnership with Surrey County Council (SCC) to improve the public realm in Church Street in Leatherhead. This included new paving, improved drainage, new street furniture and four new lime trees.

Despite ongoing pruning and street cleaning, during the warmer months when the lime trees are in full leaf, a potentially slippery residue can fall onto the pavement around the trees. After careful consideration it has been concluded that the only way to ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future is to replace the trees with a different type of tree, proposed to be birch.

In order to extract the existing trees with minimal damage to the surrounding paving, we would need to complete the work in two phases. Subject to the outcome of consultation, Phase 1 would involve removal of the trees in spring 2024. This would be followed by the commissioning of the works required to prepare the pits to take the replacement trees. The aim is to complete the replanting during the 24/25 planting season.