Once again Newcastle’s parks and green spaces, like many areas across the North East of England and the east coast of Scotland, have been battered by storms over the weekend with both Storm Malik and Corrie impacting on our green spaces, just two months after the devastation of Storm Arwen.
Extent of the damage
Over the last two days our parks team have been working hard across the estate to safely assess the impact of the storm for all 33 parks. These storms were less severe than Storm Arwen but have still resulted in over 100 trees across our estate being uprooted or severely damaged. No buildings have been affected and there were no injuries in our parks, however there has been damage to fencing and other infrastructure such as paths and boardwalks.
Just like in November, our parks team responded immediately and they have been working continuously since the storms ended to support critical infrastructure works – such as clearing roads and rights of way etc – and ensuring our green spaces remain safe places for people to visit.
Over the coming weeks we will continue to work hard to clear fallen and dangerous trees and we ask that you continue to take care when out and about in our green spaces. We are now focusing on the wider clean up effort, which we expect to take a number of weeks.
Support and assistance
We’d like to say a huge thank you to our Urban Green Volunteers and the many Friends of Groups that have worked in partnership with us on the clean up effort. We’d also like to acknowledge the support of The Skill Mill and our contractors who have again gone the extra mile to support our charity and keep our parks safe and open.
Thank you also to everyone that sent pictures and locations of damage to trees and fences in the days after the weekends storms. Your assistance was a huge help in mapping the scale of the damage. You can report any issues to us via e-mail at info@urbangreennewcastle.org and we ask the you include a What3Words location and photos where possible.
Restricted Access to Havannah and Three Hills Nature Reserve
During Storm Arwen, Havannah and Three Hills Nature Reserve suffered particularly badly, especially in the dense woodland areas. Due to the existing damage we took the decision to close off the woodland areas on Friday 28 January as a pre-emptive measure, and these areas will remain cordoned off until the woodland has been assessed and deemed safe.
In the meantime for your safety we ask visitors to the reserve to please follow the on site restrictions and stay on the main paths where they have been cleared and are safe to use. The operation to clear the damage in the woodland areas may still take some months and areas could be unsafe, particularly around unstable and damaged trees.
Continuing recovery works
Whilst we continue with our recovery works, we would like to urge members of the public and regular park users to please remain safe when visiting our city’s green spaces.
The damage caused by this weekends storms has added to our ongoing recovery work from Storm Arwen, and we expect works to continue for many weeks. Whilst we are prioritising immediate safety works first, there may be some trees or wooded areas that remain hazardous, and some damaged trees may shift over the coming weeks. Please continue to be vigilant and avoid areas that could be unsafe.
We will get to each and every site, and we’d like to thank you in advance for your patience and understanding whilst we do so.
Supporting Newcastle’s green spaces
If you would like to support our charity’s work to recover from these recent storms, please consider making a donation via our Just Giving page. All contributions will make a huge difference.
On behalf of everyone at Urban Green Newcastle, we’d like to thank you for your help and support at this very challenging time for our charity.