Voice 1: You are interested in environmental issues and you come across this podcast about an interesting project to improve some of the streets of London. Listen to the podcast and then answer the questions.
Voice 2: Have a good look at the street where you live. Do you like what you see? Often the pavements in areas of a city street are filled with signs, lampposts and other street furniture such as rubbish bins and CCTV cameras. But a street is much more than a place to pass through. It is an important community space. We all walk along a street at some point during the day and we enjoy the experience much more if there are some natural features among the steel, glass and concrete. Let’s put trees back on our streets.
Voice 1: The Trees For Streets project is about planting trees in streets where space and architecture allow. All city residents deserve to walk along a tree-lined street just as much as they deserve to have services like street-lights and rubbish collection points. Besides bringing beauty to a street, trees have a positive impact on the environment by filtering pollution and dust from the air.
Voice 2: The project managers who work for Trees For Streets carefully choose different trees for each street. If a tree is planted close to a building, they chose one with a small root system. Trees with small leaves are often chosen so that light to a building is not cut down.
Voice 1: Planting the right tree in the right place is essential. Surveys are always done to see if there are pipes or cables under the pavement. All trees planted by Trees For Streets receive regular maintenance visits to see that they are secure and safe. No one wants a Trees For Streets tree to fall down on a taxi as happened recently in Hong Kong.
Voice 2: Duke Street in South London has recently received seven plane trees. The residents and the people who use the street are delighted. May Brown has lived in Duke Street for 20 years and these are the first trees she has seen in the street. Mrs Brown says “ I am really pleased to see trees when I walk out of the front door of my block of flats. The street looked so dull and boring before the trees appeared. The trees even make the lampposts look beautiful.'
Voice 1: Everyone who knows about Trees for Streets is enthusiastic about the scheme. In these days of concrete jungles, it is amazing what pleasure a tree can bring to city dwellers. Let’s put trees back in our lives where they belong!