16/3/2007
Letters
Golf course trees will grow slower than envisagedRushmoor Borough Council’s plans for the extension of Southwood Golf Course into Southwood woodland and the building of a driving range make the claim that the driving range screening planting will be mature in 15 years.
The application states that fast-growing tree species such as alder, poplar and willow will be planted, in addition to pine and holly.
I am a member of the Woodland Trust and have been involved in planting schemes with these species. In the summers of the early 1990s, trees of these types grew up to 6ft in a year. In the last few years, the summers have been too dry and the trees have only grown up to 2ft a year.
Rushmoor Borough Council’s climate change strategy document states that we will have “more hot, dry summers”. I therefore believe that a more realistic timescale for the planting to screen the proposed 65ft (20metre) fence is 25 to 30 years.
There is evidence to support the fact that planting schemes take longer than 15 years to mature. I quote from the A34 Newbury Bypass ‘five years after’ evaluation (see the website www.highways.gov.uk/roads/documents/
Newbury_Bypass_Five_Years_After_1.pdf). “The evidence from the site visit indicates that the plant establishment generally may not be as far forward as expected”.
The environmental statement submitted as part of the planning application states that there will be a major adverse impact of the scheme on Southwood woodland (section 5.257 of the environmental statement).
I do not believe that the benefits from this application outweigh the adverse impacts that it will have and I think that Rushmoor Council’s planning services department should reject the application or revise it to reduce the number of holes relocated into Southwood woodland and to remove the driving range.
Ian Hutchins
Coleville Road
Farnborough First printed in:
Aldershot News and Mail
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