Newark's Library Gardens to be off-limits for several days due to felling of diseased tree and essential maintenance

There will no access to Library Gardens in Newark for several days from today for essential tree maintenance work to take place.

This work, being carried out by Newark and Sherwood District Council, is to protect, sustain and enhance the site for the future.

Before any work will take place, district council officers and contracted tree surgeons will undertake a dynamic visual nesting bird assessment from both ground level and within the trees to ensure there are no nesting birds.

District council officers and contracted tree surgeon have met with representatives from Protect Newark’s Green Spaces who are comfortable with the work taking place on site.

The campaign group successfully fought to save the trees from the chop at the eleventh hour with the site earmarked to become an extension to the London Road carpark

The council said full details of the work has been shared with them. The work is being undertaken on six trees in and around the Library Gardens.

The map shows:

1 – Mature sycamore tree: situated outside of the Library Gardens next to the car park. This will tree will undergo a crown lift and deadwood from the tree will be removed.

2 – Veteran sycamore: situated in the grassed area of the Library Gardens. Deadwood from the tree will be removed.

3 - Mature lime: next to the library on the grassed area within the garden. This will be receive a pruning method called a pollard. Branches will cut back sympathetically to previous pollard points from work undertaken previously.

4 – Mature acacia tree: to the rear of the Library Gardens on an area of hard standing. This tree has decay in the main stem which is still declining and therefore has a lot of standing deadwood. Sadly, this tree will be felled for safety reasons.

5 and 6 – Mature lime trees: to the rear of the Library Gardens. These trees are going to have a reduction and the deadwood will be removed.

Protect Newark's Green Spaces said there were many exciting changes afoot for Library Gardens.

"Everything has been left to grow and lots of wild plants are starting to emerge including celandine, bluebells, scilla and violets," it said.

"The Friends of the Library Garden group is working closely with the street scene team at the district council to nurture our precious green space.

"We’re planning a trip to buy wildflower plants and native hedging was planted this weekend.

"We also hope to have a garden designer on site soon. As you can probably tell, we’re bubbling over with ideas and have many exciting plans to share with you in the coming weeks.

"However, along with all this good news, we have sad news too. You may remember we told you last month that the false acacia at the back of the garden must be felled, due to root disease.

"We can now confirm that the work is scheduled to take place this week, lasting around three days. Along with removing the false acacia, some limited tree works will be done to the lime and the sycamore within the garden to ensure that they continue to thrive.

"It goes without saying that we are all devastated to lose the false acacia. As a campaign group, we fought so hard to save all the trees in the Library Garden and to lose one is an undeniable blow. However, please be assured that the garden and the other trees are safe and that we are determined to honour the false acacia’s legacy in a number of ways.

"We are having a bench made from the wood so people can sit and spend some time We hope everyone understands that the false acacia will still be very much part of the garden that we saved and that it will continue to be enjoyed by our community, which is all any of us ever wanted for this wonderful green space."