A first outing

Last weekend saw my first outing into Epsom for a while, have been summoned for a flu jab. Which gave me an opportunity to inspect the new trees that have been planted, and previously noticed, for example at reference 2, at the foot of the fine new smoking patio outside Wetherspoons, a handsome building once the town Assembly Rooms, complete with carriage entrance running through the middle.

The tree was not looking particularly healthy, although probably alive, but today's point is the state of the basal gravel, already looking pretty ruffled after the light activity of the summer just past.

We will see how things settle down in the months and years to come, but I still wonder whether what they did in King's Cross, noticed at reference 1, second snap, would not have been better. Don't suppose anyone is going to cough up for the heavy duty cast iron grills, properly framed in stone or brick, that town councils managed a hundred or more years ago, and still to be found in quiet corners.

That said, asking Google for 'cast iron tree surrounds' turns up all kinds of stuff, a lot of which looks rather better than the gravel above, and costs significantly less than the £1,000 or so a pop I dare say the council have paid for the tree planting and setting that they have got. It could have been afforded in the context of the £4m or so that I think that they have spent on this refurbishment.

PS: something has happened over the last couple of days to the pasting of web site addresses into blog posts, with both old and new varieties appearing below, without there having been any intention on my part. No idea whether it is the Microsoft or Google engineers who have been playing about.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/03/kings-cross.html. 

Reference 2: psmv4: Ewell Village anti-clockwise (adapted).

Reference 3: psmv4: Traffic flow management. Can't find the post with the cost of the refurbishment, but I did turn up this one, which suggests the work took well over a year to complete.