Sir – Along with many residents of Osney Island, West Oxford Community Renewables (WOCR) regrets the need to fell the two rowan trees in the garden of numbers 33-38 South Street because they were diseased with Ganoderma.
If anyone doubts the presence and extent of the disease, we suggest they examine the trunks left after the felling where the dark brown discolouration clearly shows the fungus penetrating right into the heartwood of the trees.
We would like to emphasise for avoidance of any doubt that the felling was not necessary for our solar project to go ahead on the social housing at South Street. This was clearly stated by the council officers who attended the site meeting on Monday, July 25, but we think that clear message did not come through in reports either in the Oxford Mail or The Oxford Times.
The solar project is a great example of community-led action on both climate change and fuel poverty, where the council tenants will get free electricity from the panels for the next 25 years and the community will get income from the new Feed-in Tariff. Part of this money will be used to plant more trees across West Oxford.
Last year, Low Carbon West Oxford planted over 600 trees and plans to plant many more in the coming years using donations from the renewable energy projects owned by WOCR.
We need both renewable energy and trees in abundance if we are to achieve a low carbon economy and avoid the worst effects of climate change. WOCR is committed to working in our community to deliver both in balance and harmony each with the other.
Barbara Hammond, Chairman, West Oxford Community Renewables on behalf of the WOCR Board
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