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Belfast Live

National

Shauna Corr

The Earth’s Corr: People in more deprived Belfast neighbourhoods deserve tree-lined streets too

Belfast Earth NI Belfast Live Environment

I absolutely love this time of year.

As you walk past nature-friendly hedges and trees, birdsong rings through the air and it always brings a smile to my face.

Then there’s the fact that just about every plant we allow to grow is at its best after the lift in temperature, a lot more sun and some sprinklings of rain.

Tree lined avenues throughout the city are showing off their Sunday best. And it’s great to see city centre premises like bars and cafés adorned with plants and flowers of just about every kind.

Some, like the Duke of York, really go all out - and hats off to them for it! Can’t say I feel the same for others that substitute the real thing with plastic intruders, probably installed because they are a little less work.

I can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to do their bit for the environment and cleaning up our air. And don’t even get me started on fake grass, on sale by the metre in hardware and bargain stores across the city. All a bit of a microplastic nightmare, if I’m honest.

It’s really not hard to grow the real thing and keep it alive with a little water every day. Then there’s the disparity between haves and have-nots on the street tree front.

While some folks across Belfast and beyond are lucky enough to live in areas where the built environment is softened by rows of majestic trees - many of us are not. And there appears to be a clear divide between historically affluent areas and everywhere else.

New build estates and streets seem to focus their planting in the rows between gardens, with little in front of homes.

I know Belfast City Council has promised to plant one million trees and I can’t wait to see that happen. The city centre, with all the recent talk of the mess it’s become, really could use a lot more greenery.

Cities like Brisbane, Australia, where I lived for a while, are leaps and bounds ahead of us on that front and imagine the amount the water they need to keep them alive with the temperatures there.

They have buildings covered in greenery, archways covered in creepers and trees just about any place there’s a spot for one. Here the weather does half the work for us and still we only see trees on a few of our main streets.

They are few and far between on the largely pedestrian shopping streets in and around Victoria Square, on High Street and further along Royal Avenue.

Paris is a lot more green (Google Earth)

Compared to cities like Paris, there’s not much green about Belfast at all.

I know it’s probably best these things are considered when regeneration schemes are underway or new cycle lanes are being added in - but there’s no reason why we could pull up a few pavers and slide a tree in every couple of metres or so on the streets that have none.

As temperatures and tides rise, they will help us fight the climate crisis - and imagine the difference they would make to the quality of air!

The street where Belfast’s Live’s new HQ is boasts no greenery at all despite its width, but you’ll find plenty of binbags and rubbish lying about it.

We need to start planting that million trees on city streets where there are none. It will make the place a far prettier place to welcome tourists to as well.

And while we’re at it - how about some schemes to add them to residential streets still a poor far out cousin to the leafy suburbs in some parts of the city.

Water quality challenge fund is a sticking plaster

Minister Poots has launched a Water Quality Challenge Fund scheme this week with grants of £5,000-£30,000 available to not-for profits to help clean up NI’s waterways.

I’d call that putting a sticking plaster on a gaping wound as it will do very little to mitigate the impact slurry and fertilisers are having on our ditches, streams, rivers, lakes and sea.

Giving money to some charities while doing little else policy wise to rectify the situation is simply put, a joke.

That green algae you see on waterways all across NI is caused by fertilisers sprayed on fields and crops, while slurrying fields has seen NI fail to meet its ammonia reduction targets year after year after year.

Need I go on?

It’s time the Environment Minister actually dealt with the nub of the problem rather than tickling around the edges and expecting not-for-profits and voluntary environmental farm schemes to work miracles.

Some civil servants seem to be listening

I headed along to a public meeting at Belfast Boat Club on Thursday night about the Belfast Tidal Flood Alleviation scheme.

Led by the Department for Infastructure and subcontractor for the job Charles Brand, the meeting really shone a light on how passionate people are about protecting nature and wildlife.

While folks were still understandably angry about the trees lost along the Lagan without any consultation as well as a ‘singing hedge’ that was once home to red listed sparrows - they were there to listen and give their views. And they certainly did.

Some on the panel seemed a little on the back foot about comments on what had passed but one’s man’s approach to the exercise really stood out. And I have to say the DFI engineer and project manager, who I’ll not name here, really gave me hope that civil servants can learn from their mistakes.

Holding his hands up to some of the decisions made about the scheme, he took locals on a walk around the area afterwards and really listened to views about how schemes like this should have nature protection at their heart. He even took some tips on future planting to mitigate what was lost when 14 trees came down.

That’s the type of public consultation communities need on such potentially destructive projects for nature - as they seem to be its first and last line of defence.

It’s just a shame it's taken some serious backlash for it to happen in this case.