‘Roots were “undisturbed’ during bus station work’

Powys County Council has denied that tree roots were tampered with during the work to convert part of the Church Street Car Park into a bus station after a large tree almost crushed a bus stop overnight.

Sunday’s heavy wind ripped the tree from the ground, and it has been taped off waiting for the council’s busy clearing up team to attend.

The removal of trees and hedgerows caused controversy at the time when it was built, but Powys County Council mitigated concerns by keeping five trees in place.

One local tree consultant, Giles Mercer, raised concerns at the time about the issue with the trees, and has again raised concerns online about their safety, saying that “quite possibly” it could happen again.

“We now have a row of trees with little amenity value, very few roots, likely to die, predisposed to failure,” he said.

But this afternoon, Powys County Council has explained their position.

“As part of the development, five mature trees were left in situ,” said a spokesperson. “The tree that has fallen was one of the mature trees. Resurfacing work took place around the mature trees and then KBI Flexipave was installed around the base of these trees.

“The root bowls of the five mature trees were undisturbed while the works took place.”

Today, passers-by were simply glad that no-one was around when the tree fell in such a busy public area.