Tuesday 29 July 2008

Greenest Olympics?!?




We all remember what the view over the River Lea used to look like before we started planting trees over there.

The Hackney Wick Dog Stadium was still there, Arena Fields was still a fantastic place for a picnic & kick-a-round - but it did look a bit bare.

That's when a whole heap of Leabankers started planting lush green trees just over the river in order to make our little corner of Hackney Wick feel like the oasis it did.

And didn't it look great?!?

Even when the Olympic Wall went up - our trees still made the area feel green.


Well..........


Today the tree cutters moved in!

All that hard work, all those years of trees getting watered by us carrying buckets to & from the canal, all those mature trees - getting felled within minutes!!

We all know just how long it took our trees to grow & make our stretch of the river look beautiful & green.

Do you think that the Olympic people are going to replace these trees?





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sóna

I bet they will attempt to placate us with a few young bushes.

If they are chopping down our beautiful mature trees - then they should replace them with mature nursery trees - no matter what the cost!!

Our trees took a lot of hard graft and tender loving care to grow to the beauties thet were.

We deserve better Mr. Olympics!!!

Taggerx

Anonymous said...

Oh NO!!!!!!!!!

You have no idea how awful it looks now to see the bare cked earth instead of our old lush trees!!!!!

They have started right opposite my block now and it is heartbreaking to see the trees going down.

My littlelest is actually in tears! She remembers how 4 summers ago we all went over and did some gardening right where they are sawing down as I write.

Shona - pleeeeeezzzzzz ask them to stop!!

Mary

Anonymous said...

Hey Shona

So..... they won't put up any sound barriers...... but they are getting rid of the beautiful natural sound barriers we all planted?

Does any of this make any sense?

Dave

Anonymous said...

Hey Sóna - did you see the 'standard' today had an article on how green the Olympics were going to be.

Turns out not very.

Steve

Anonymous said...

Hi Sóna

Is there any way we could do a section of donating here on the blog?

A kind of wish-list of all the kind of things we really need in Leabank Square.

For a start - how about some trees to replace the ones these idiots are cutting down across the canal. Whether we plant them on our bank-side or on the opposite side of the canal mattetrs not. Just as long as we get some greenery going again.

But broader than the olympic ravaging automatrons; gardening tools, large plant pots, soil, compost, paint, timber, ivy, creepers, hanging baskets, hose pipes, irrigation systems, turf, etc, etc.

You remember the long rambling 9sorry!) conversation I had while you were watering the green - well - all those things that we were discussing - plus a whole load more!!

We could then contact the garden centres, hardware superstores, rich fat cats, city firms, possibly the olympic people, hackney council, tree charities, allotment gardners, etc.

I'll chat about this more when I see you, but have a think anyway.

Rubes

Anonymous said...

Greenest?

Don't make me laugh!!

I know you peeps on the canal have lost a lot of your trees, but there have been loads more trees cut down ALL OVER the olympic site.

They are hoping that we all forget about this in the next 4 years.

Some of us are not going to.

Anonymous said...

Love the photo with the old Hackney Wick stadium anf glad you liked my flower bags photos. Keep up the good work

Cheers

Dunc

Anonymous said...

Hi Shona

Every time I look out from my balcony I feel this deeeeeep feeling of sadness at the loss of our beautiful Arena Fields!!

The days of sipping a coffee before going off to work - while spotting a cormorant drying it's wings in one of our trees - is a distant memory.

How did the Labour govenment and Hackney Council (both of whom I've alwats supported for over 40 years) ever shaft us locals without so much as an explanation?

This sadness is so profound

Bill