Smalltown and Dullbridge Town Council’s plans to commemorate Queen Victoria II’s Titanium Jubilee in June are fast becoming a headache for councillors. (Ed – there was a PLAN?)
SaDTC consulted with residents late last year and asked for suggestions for ways to celebrate the special occasion, as the councillors couldn’t come up with any ideas of their own.
Despite receiving several ideas, including a ‘Welcome to Smalltown’ sign, various sculptures in both Smalltown and Dullbridge and even several simple suggestions to plant up flowerbeds in the area, Town Council’s rejected every idea put to them on the grounds that they’d left it too late to start working on plans now and they’d forgotten to include the Jubilee in their budget so there isn’t any money to spend anyway.
The only suggestion that found favour was an idea to plant 70 trees in the area, but with the optimum time to plant trees being between November and March it appears that time is running out for that too.
Councillors had planned to identify areas where the trees could be planted, but with the Friends of Pinnacle Park being ahead of the game and planting their own trees in the park earlier this month, it has left very few options for suitable sites, especially since SaDTC don’t have any responsibility for land in the area – apart from two allotments, three burial grounds, Dullbridge Green, Northwell Gardens in Dullbridge and various small strips of land bordering roads in the two towns.
A proposal to plant trees along Drag Queens Drive, as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy, had to be rejected as the land is within the boundaries of the parish of Smalltown Without and nothing to do with SaDTC. Somerset County Council’s Department of Roads and Transport (RAT) also veteod the idea of planting any trees on land which borders their highways.
This has left SaDTC with a problem – how will they be able to give Squire Teflon and his cronies the photo opportunity they crave, as they pose beside an upturned sod?
(Ed – I’m confused. I thought they were planting trees, not putting the Squire headfirst into a hole. Although I can see the attraction.)
SaDTC are once again appealing for help from residents. “Please, if anyone has any space in their garden, please come forward. We need suggestions for somewhere to plant these trees. We don’t own very much land in Smalltown or Dullbridge and we’ve totally run out of ideas for what we can do with them.”
Resident Harold (Harry) Beard has already answered the call” I’ve written to the council and suggested they shove the trees up their @rses.”
As they’re building houses on any empty pieces of land they might be able to fit them on in Dullbridge, it’s going to be a difficult one to solve, even the Jumbly Gardend couldn’t take a medium sized shrub now and the roundabouts have concrete in the middle.