Ash Dieback Disease

The Council are responsible for the management of trees on its land and would not routinely inspect trees on private land. However, if we believe there is an immediate concern with a tree located on private land we would do our best to advise the landowner, but any action would be for the landowner to take.

You might be interested to know that, under the surface of an area of the Nature Reserve not affected by Ash Dieback there are cars, washing machines and (rumour has it) even a bus! As a former landfill used between 1945 and 1972, it simply won’t be possible for us to remove all the rubbish. What we are doing is working with both the Forestry Commission, to understand how the soil quality might impact our ambitions to replant, and our Environmental Health colleagues, to understand if we need to cap the exposed areas with some soil. 

Whilst we do this, we’ve fenced off the areas where rubbish is particularly exposed to prevent public access as much as we can. 

The area was used as a landfill between 1945 and 1972 and has been open to the public as a Nature Reserve since the 1980s. We understand it is confronting to see the rubbish that has always been there so visible, but this is a reality on lots of Local Nature Reserves- they are unlikely to have been created in a pristine way. We’re working with our Environmental Health colleagues to understand if we need to cap the exposed areas with some soil but, fundamentally, there is no greater risk from asbestos, lead or methane now than there was before the Ash Dieback works took place.

The 30% restriction outlined on the felling licence is applied for thinning operations only. The work undertaken to remove Ash Dieback at Eastern Road Nature Reserve was not for thinning.

As a former landfill the soil quality is poor- it is very shallow, and the rubbish is visible. By removing those trees affected by Ash Dieback a further 200 trees were left in exposed positions. This exposure (where they were now not surrounded by other trees for protection) meant that some trees were at significant risk of falling- both because the soil quality means the tree roots are very shallow and because of increased exposure to wind. 

These works were undertaken in line with our Tree Management Policies, which are published online here: mid-sussex-district-council-tree-management-policy.pdf (midsussex.gov.uk).

A condition of the felling licence was for replanting to take place within two years of the work being completed. This timeframe was given to us by the Forestry Commission. New trees have a greater chance of thriving when planted in the winter and, given the work required to restore the land before replanting, our earliest opportunity to do this is over the 2024-25 winter period.

We’re aiming for replanting to take place during the 2024-25 winter period and will be talking to the Forestry Commission about this soon. We’ll keep you updated on our progress here, but you can receive them directly into your email inbox if you sign up for updates.

We’re aiming for replanting to take place during the 2024-25 winter period and, in the lead up to this, we will be seeing what work we need to do to get the area ready for replanting. We’ll keep you updated on our progress here, but you can receive them directly into your email inbox if you sign up for updates.

We’ve removed all trees that were covered by the felling licence and affected by exposure. Now that this is complete, a further inspection of all trees in Eastern Road Nature Reserve will be undertaken and, if more works are needed, these will be completed. If Ash trees aren’t showing signs of Ash Dieback, we will make sure we do everything we can to preserve them.

This is our next step now the fencing has been completed. If you subscribe for updates, we will let everyone know our plans to restore the pathways and what material we will restore them with.