Reading Borough Council Accidentally Chops down 800 Trees
In the News
Hundreds of trees planted by volunteers in a park have been accidentally cut down by a council maintenance team.
The 800 saplings, donated by the Woodland Trust, were planted in Palmer Park in Reading between 2016 and 2017.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-50480114
Who can still have any faith in any council after actions such as these?
Oh believe me, I lost faith in councils long before this and I speak from 26 years experience working for one!
The trouble with the public sector is that, unless you are one of the old school conscientious types, most council workers just get through the day any way they can, get through the week for the weekend and get through the month to collect their pay.
When I started, work was quite regimented, tea breaks and lunch at set times, a quiet environment conducive to working and an air of work being important. Nowadays it is all chat, wandering around, tea breaks whenever, although some public facing workers are tied to the desk whilst receiving the public.
No one gives a damn, no one is held to account for mistakes and it takes hell of a lot to get rid of even the worst workers as there is always the threat of tribunals to contend with. I could go on and on but this is probably not the place!
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t have any faith in local councils. Planning departments in particular have a propensity for backhanders and swear blind that they don’t ever do that sort of thing. You only have to look at the properties they allow to be built to recognise these backhanders! Councils also use austerity to make the householders pay more than they should need to. Council tax is the largest bill for a lot of people (other than PAYE) and cannot continue to increase exponentially whilst cutting services. I believe there will come a time when the masses will rise…
Sadly these days, possibly due to the times we live in, not many people go to work and enjoy their jobs. It is simply something to get through for a pay cheque. 
Sorry, you were right about accountability too - there is none.
how heartbreaking- Are the people responsible volunteering their time and hard earned to replant them all or should we just expect this paltry response as a bad apology? No faith and not for many a year im afraid.
I would imagine that they won't even reprimand the people who actually did the 'chopping' and the person who ordered it will probably be promoted!
An ‘accident’ they say? Someone‘s head ought to roll for this one! It takes ages to chop down that many trees, especially if it’s being done by the council, so if it were an accident, someone would’ve noticed at some point
my own experiences with the councils have shown me they can’t be trusted, and most things don’t happen by accident
They should also be forced to plant more than the number of trees they destroyed. That was not accidental. As you say it takes a long time to fell that number of trees and even longer to grow them again. I imagine that whilst this was happening they were pretending to be sad about forests being depleted in other parts of the world too. Double standards - Heads should roll.
tumblespots the problem is that with most councils they will then hike up council tax or take away money from another resource to rectify their ‘mistakes’, so it’s always the public who suffers. It’s actually criminal what they do, as no one ever really get punished for it, so they continue doing what they do. It annoys me to no end that public services are so poorly managed, usually due to some power play in office politics
hspexy I agree wholeheartedly. Why should they care when there are no repercussions and no-one is held to account? They carry on misusing funds just like the main government only on a slightly smaller scale, but it is all public money that they are wasting.
That was NO accident...
Imagine if a member of the public had done something like this, or even felled ONE protected tree (perhaps on their own land) the council would have been down on them like a tonne of bricks. Who will be fired? No-one!
tumblespots winds me right up with the council quick to kick off at the public but none of their own for 'accidents'
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