Calls for a green retrofit of Coventry City Centre to banish concrete jungle

[dutchman]

Councillors want more trees in the city centre



City bosses have been urged to be “far more ambitious” in plans to make Coventry’s city centre greener.

The council is drafting up a new 10-year Urban Forestry Strategy, which was discussed at a scrutiny board on Wednesday, Novemebr 6.

It follows a recently approved Green Space Strategy which includes the aspiration of planting 360,000 new tress – one for every citizen.

Councillors have previously called for more trees in the city centre, branding it a “concrete jungle”, but the draft strategy has warned there are “limited opportunities”.

But chair of the meeting, Cllr John McNicholas, called for “high-level aspirational thinking”.

He said: “This is an opportunity to retrofit green infrastructure into the city centre.

“We should be looking to be far more ambitious in terms of what we wish to achieve.”

Scurinty boards have previously referenced Mexico City’s Via Verde scheme, which has transformed thousands of highway pillars into vertical gardens, as a point of inspiration.

Cllr Bally Singh said the council needs to be including ideas “that people will be inspired by”.

He said: “There needs to be more emphasis on the architectural benefit of urban forestry, particularly in the city centre, to help it become an even better leisure destination.

“We have a ring road which is an opportunity to include some green space.”

One of the last ideas suggested by the scrutiny board – planting a tree for every citizen – was taken up by the council in its new Green Space Strategy.

Schools were said to play a key part in the ambition as councillors have been told the city council alone does not have enough land.

Arboriculture Services Officer Tim Wetherhill added: “The hope is to spread it as wide as possible so everybody benefits from it, opening school sites, business sites and city council sites right across Coventry.

“The hope is – and this is just an idea – is that we can get people to adopt a tree, they can be given a tree, and plant it in their garden to spread it further.”

[rebbonk]

The big problem is that greenery needs tending and caring for: have the council got the funds/manpower/facilities for doing this?

Are we now recognising that cllr John Mutton's big patio might not have been such a good idea?

[dutchman]

They've been cutting down trees for the last thirty years, often against local objections.