Cathedral gives 'high priority' to scheme for replanting trees

AN exhibition of new vision plans for Exeter's Cathedral Green — including the replacement of trees chopped down last summer — is expected to be held in September

Tree lovers have been waiting anxiously for news of replacements since seven London planes were felled.

Paul Snell, the cathedral administrator, says tree replanting will be a high priority in the new scheme for Cathedral Green.

He said “It is expected that the first stage will take place during the next planting season and before March 2009.”

Mr Snell said the 14 trees left on the green were doing well — except for the sole surviving London plane, which shed a branch at Easter and would require close attention.

He said that replanting would be linked to an overall vision for the green and cathedral surroundings.

No decision has yet been made on which species of tree will be planted. Landscape architects Robert Myers Associates would be the cathedral's partner in the scheme.

Mr Snell said: “The development requires consultation with a number of statutory and advisory bodies before a public exhibition in the cathedral's Chapter House in September, and this process has already begun.

“Full details of the exhibition will be announced in due course in order to encourage the widest possible comment.

“With the development of Princesshay and the enhancements to the Cathedral Yard and Close, this is a particularly exciting time with great potential for a modelling of the green and its associated spaces that explores new meanings and connections between the ancient and modern, ecclesiastical and secular.

“In this special part of central Exeter, the Dean and Chapter are fully involved in the prospect of a plan for for this cathedral and its place in the city.”

The axed trees ran from Broadgate across the front of the green as far as the Royal Clarence Hotel.

They had been planted to replace ancient elms that had succumbed to Dutch elm disease.

Cathedral authorities said consultants called in to examine the seven trees found they were all suffering from a “common structural fault” and had to be felled.

The cathedral took the advice after an incident the previous year when a branch snapped and took a lower branch with it.