LIB DEM SOUTHWARK PRAISED FOR STREET TREES BY GLA REPORT

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 5th Jun 2007

Liberal Democrat run Southwark Council has emerged as one of the top performing boroughs for preserving and planting street trees according to a new GLA report. Southwark outperformed neighbouring boroughs Lewisham, Lambeth and Bromley.

"Trees contribute much to the local environment, offsetting the concrete mass of the city sprawl and framing offices houses and shops," said Cllr Lisa Rajan, Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Environment on Southwark Council. "They offer cooling relief in the summer and provide a first line of defence against global warming."

"I am delighted that Southwark's positive attitude towards preserving our street trees has been recognised in the figures in this report. In Southwark we have 15436 street trees. In last five years we have planted 1775 trees and removed 251, mainly due to storm damage, disease or subsidence. This net gain of 1524 (9.87%) compares with Lambeth's net gain of 877 (9.36%), Bromley's net gain of 900 (2.37%) and Lewisham's net gain of just 31 trees (0.26%)."

"Overall, Southwark ranked fifth of all 32 London boroughs in terms of percentage increase in street tree numbers. This is a statistic of which we are proud and on which we are determined to build."

"We recognise that there are still issues to address. Southwark loses a larger proportion of trees because of subsidence claims than many other boroughs and we need to look to make sure that we are not cutting down trees unnecessarily. We also need to make sure that we are planting the right sort of trees in replacement for those lost."

ENDS

Note: The GLA report: Chainsaw Massacre - A review of London's street trees, was published by the GLA Environment Committee chaired by Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson.