As part of the Mere Court refurbishment plans, Cheshire East will be carrying out tree works around the pond and rockery area in the near future. The work will start at the beginning of next week and is the first step towards clearing the site around the pond to let more light in and make maintenance easier in future. There is some fairly extensive work to be carried out and below is a summary of what will be happening:-
- Removing a couple of poor specimen conifers at the Woodland Crescent entrance
- Removing a number of conifers from the rockery area to open it up and prevent them from further encroaching on the area
- The laural shrubs along the boundary with neighbouring properties will be reduced to hedge height for easier maintenance in future
- The shrub bed along the path will be thinned of self-seeded holly and yew to open up the space and let in more light to the surrounding area
- Rhododendrons will be re-shaped/lifted and poor specimens removed to open up views and let more light in
- A number of self-seeded/poor quality trees will be removed from the pond edge. The important trees (mainly the oak) will be crown reduced. Works to this area are to open up views across the pond, let more light in, make future maintenance easier and reduce leaf litter that is increasingly problematic to the health of the pond.
Cheshire East has worked with the Arboricultural Officer to ensure that all the appropriate approval for the works has been granted in accordance with the tree protection order on the site. The Tree Team Leader will be liaising closely with his Supervisor on this project.
The tree team will be checking for nesting birds before carrying out the works. If they find any, they will leave them undisturbed and we will progress with that area in the autumn. Some paths will be closed for short periods during the works for health and safety reasons.
With regards further developments on site, Cheshire East is awaiting costings for drainage improvements and Officers are working on a play area design. Path works will be programmed in for late spring/ summer 2019.