Stag Steering Group meeting notes 2nd March 2021

1. Status Update on the 309 Core Investment Period Trees

1.1 After a brief discussion about the ongoing lack of progress the following actions were agreed.

1.2 Paul S would chase Darren Butt again about the Kenwood Park Road and Kenbourne Road joint investigations that were scheduled to begin four weeks ago, but were cancelled at the last minute. These haven’t been re-scheduled yet.

1.3 Christine would chase Amey and SCC again about the lack of publication of the details of the definitely saved trees

1.4 Christine would chase Darren Butt again about the 5+ trees Amey still want to fell, and when there was going to be a discussion about them.

2. ATMP

2.1 There are seven trees which STAG have queried but only one where Christine has received a response.

2.2 Paul S raised concerns about Amey’s lack of coordination and the risk that the six at risk may be felled in error unless we chase a response.

2.3 Christine agreed to let Helen Kemp know the details of these six trees and Helen agreed to contact Carl Ellison at Amey.

3. Street Tree Strategy 

3.1 Paul S stated what he’d posted on the STAG Steering Group Facebook page last week. There were no questions.

3.2 Deepa had previously raised a question about whether there should be a commitment for a five-yearly review. Paul S took an action to urgently raise this with the Partnership Group.

4. Progress towards establishing Future STAG

4.1 Annie is concentrating on the General Meeting and so wasn’t able to update on much.

4.2 Chris wasn’t in attendance so wasn’t able to add anything.

4.3 Only two people have so far nominated themselves to be future Committee members (Christine and Russell)

4.4 Helen, Phil and Paul S all confirmed they would be standing down in April.

4.5 Paul S raised the issue of the real risk that only two people would volunteer and that this wouldn’t be enough.

4.6 There was a long discussion and there was speculation that people may not be volunteering because it wasn’t clear enough what future STAG would be about and what the roles on the future Committee might involve.

4.7 It was agreed that all current Steering Group members would try to nudge friends and contacts into volunteering to be a Future STAG committee member.

4.8 Paul S took a specific action to contact a STAG member that Chris Rust had previously suggested might be interested.

4.9 Annie took an action to contact all existing Steering Group members via the Steering Group Facebook page to see if any of them were going to stay on.

5. Progress towards organising the General Meeting

5.1 Following on from the previous agenda item, we agreed to re-order the agenda so that the Election/Appointment of Future Committee members would be the last agenda item. This would hopefully allow the first three items to provoke volunteers on the day.

5.2 Christine agreed to chair the General Meeting as a whole.

5.3 Christine agreed to draft a “General Background Update” for the first agenda item, to be shared with all Future STAG members a week before the General Meeting. This would then be circulated with existing Steering Group members for approval beforehand.

5.4 Christine agreed to contact Chris to ask him to do something similar for the second agenda item, the Financial Update.

5.5 The third agenda item will be about Future STAG aims. Helen agreed to re-post this on STAG Steering Group Facebook page. Someone needs to lead this agenda item at the General Meeting and, ideally, draft something for circulation to all members, before the General Meeting.

6. AOB

6.1 Christine noted that she’d been approached for an interview in Now Then magazine.

6.2 Christine also informed SG that she’d been approached about whether STAG should ask all political parties ahead of the Council elections whether they’d commit to an Enquiry into the Street Tree Crisis. All Steering Group members agreed we should, and Russell took an action to do this.

6.3 Christine asked for information about the “free additional plantings” Paul S had been able to identify for the NESST area, via an historic FoI and a recent FOI. Paul S outlined the complex background and advised Christine to contact David Wain.

6.4 Annie asked about a sick looking tree she’d reported repeatedly and for which she’d had no response from Streets Ahead. She asked what she should do next. Christine had the latest information on that tree and said she’d forward that to Annie. 

6.5 In general though, Amey are not responding to many issues however they are reported. Paul S took an action to make contact via the Street Tree Warden network to raise our concerns that incidents raised were being ignored.