STORM NEWS

The storm hit the Hills on Sunday 27th October 2002 in the early hours. By 7.30 am the Director had been contacted by the Highways Partnership to say that an ash tree was across the road at British Camp. This was quickly cleared whilst the storm was raging.

A visit to "Thirds Wood" saw more trees down, the wind was too high at this stage to go into the woods in safely. More oak trees were down below British Camp, one root alone weighed 4 ton. This was temporally deposited at the bottom of the hill and later buried on Little Malvern Farm.

By Sunday evening the Jubilee Drive was clear.

On Monday further roads including Chase Road & Foley Terrace were reopened. All through Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday work continued to clear telephone wires and tree branches on Conservators land. Telephone cables across common land are the responsibility of the service provider. We are asking our neighbours to pick up and dispose of their own trees.

Next week we will start on the Hill paths and the long list of reported tree problems. St Ann's Well path is badly affected.

Finally we will need to re-survey all our trees, many will now have new structural problems. This could take some time to get around. It is amazing what damage can occur in such little time.

All branches etc have been chipped.

Fire wood may be for sale through the Operations Manager, call the office to find out 01684 892002. The money goes into the training budget.