15 new trees are set to be installed along Burnham-On-Sea’s Esplanade next month in a project to introduce more colour to the seafront.
At a Town Council meeting on Tuesday night (August 29th), Gaynor Brown from community group BOS Events received support for the project from councillors.
The 15 flowering Mimosa trees will be set up and funded through a £5,000 grant from the Hinkley Point C Community Fund, as we reported here earlier this year.
She told councillors: “In the 1981 storm, Burnham lost its prom. We needed a seawall. But there seems to have been no consideration that this is a tourist town and a mass of dark tarmac and a series of brutalist structures is hardly going to prompt people to walk along the front, take a selfie, or make a memory to bring a visitor back.”
“We can’t start again or raise hundreds of thousands to re-scape what we have been left with but we could do an awful lot with what we have. So the idea was to put 15 flowering mimosa trees around the events area and start a conversation with residents, traders and visitors to ask what they thought should be on the prom.”
“Burnham has been without its prom for 40 years and we thought it was about time that we claimed it back. We would then come back to the Town Council and Somerset Council with the ideas split into small projects that we could get funding for and produce a pathway of moments that would make people want to promenade.”
“So this £5,000 of out of season interest that we hope can encourage the coach traffic that we all put in so much effort to bring in with Project Coach.”
The trees are set to be formally launched to coincide with Burnham’s Eco Festival on 30th September.
Gaynor adds: “The trees are planted in cider barrels, anchored through the tarmac and each with an irrigation system that the Council’s bowser will service. They will be installed by a local landscape company. I have a Mimosa in my garden that survived four years in a pot before being planted. It’s a magical mass of yellow blossom from September to April.”
Cllr Peter Clayton told Tuesday’s meeting that he supports the project, adding: “We need a lot more to see along the seafront, so I hope the location of the trees can be flexible,” while Cllr Mike Facey added: “I fully support this” and said he hopes an update on the progress of the proposed new seafront play area will also come soon.
Cllr James Warren asked how long the trees would be expected to be in place, to which Gaynor said they can survive “for up to four years.” Cllr Ganesh Gudka noted that “the cost of remedial work to remove the trees at the end of their life should be included in the project.”
In a vote in response to a temporary licence application for the project, one councillor – Cllr Barbara Vickers – abstained, while the others voted to support it.
