Regular readers will know I have written many times about the damage and disruption along Smannell Road and to the Smannell Road open space caused by successive building and other contractors. We have seen the road closed, temporary traffic lights, floods and the open space ploughed up to lay cables, pipes and whatever.

At last we are coming to the end of the works and as promised Test Valley Borough Council are starting to landscape the area again. As part of this landscaping new trees will be planted to improve the area.

Many of the young trees planted here have failed and are in a poor state due to damage caused by mowers, strimmers, etc. Also, nine trees were removed when the pipeline and bicycle path was installed. The damaged trees will be replaced by fifteen dawn redwood trees. These will be planted at semi-mature size and will be designed around the existing trees. The damaged trees will be removed in the next few days and the planting will take place some time around mid December.

The dawn redwood is a native to China and was introduced to Britain first in 1948. It is a coniferous tree but is deciduous, meaning it loses its needles in autumn. The tree is fast growing a can attain heights of 30m. It is a tree of outstanding natural beauty and the new trees will blend in very well with native species, which will surround them.