Assurances given by council over plans for Amble memorial tree

Amble Town Council recently became owner of the Gardens and is now deciding what work needs to be done there so it can be maintained for the future.

However, concerns were raised at the November meeting about plans for the tree planted in Betty Stewart’s memory.

Joanne Schofield, representing the Stewart family, said they had been made aware, via Facebook, of some intentions to remove the tree.

Mayor Craig Weir responded: “It’s not being removed. It may be removed in the fullness of time, with the good grace of the Stewart family.

“The town council has taken on responsibility for the Memorial Gardens and there is a lot of work which needs to be done to bring them up to a good standard.”

The first phase involves managing the trees which have become overgrown and are catching the overhead cables, new fencing to stop them being used as a shortcut and a tidy-up of the hard landscaped areas.

A full explanation on the council website states that Betty’s memorial tree, not the original one but a replacement, remains an integral part of the garden.

‘It is becoming too large for the raised bed it is in and possibly because of this, it is beginning to die in the middle. Cutting back this type of tree cannot be done so rather than just wait until the tree died, council considered what could be done to preserve the ‘memorial’ element. Under the spring ‘revamp’ a semi-mature evergreen tree will be planted nearer the Radcliffe Memorial side where it can be viewed from both the square and Queen Street so that it can grow and, like the tree in the raised bed now, be a fitting replacement for the original tree,’ it says.

‘Those who knew Betty will remember her fondness for the ‘lost villages’ of which Radcliffe was one. When the time is right the commemorative plaque will be placed nearer this tree, thus retaining fond memories of her love for the community in which she lived and to which she devoted a lot of her time.’