The first time I saw a palm tree was in Torquay – it's shocking 40 of them have been hacked down
Stroll along the Torquay seafront, and you’ll still see rays of afternoon sunlight flickering off the water, waves gently lapping at the sea wall. In the harbour nearby, the yachts bob, ready for more get-away-from-it-all hijinks… and usually, of course, there’d be the palm trees: 40 Cordyline australis swishing in the town’s Italian Gardens, the sword-fronded crowning glory of this English Riviera town. That was until they were hacked down overnight earlier this week as part of refurbishment work, supposedly in preparation for the gardens’ centenary in 2024.
What was once the jewel of the Torquay seafront has been transformed overnight into a wasteland. Forty ghostly grey stumps, one picked over by a small murder of crows on our visit, are all that remain.
It’s an inauspicious end to what had become the symbol of Torquay – the trees are even depicted on the town’s signage. Why anyone would have chosen to chop them down on the eve of such a milestone anniversary has left the locals baffled.
“It was almost like a perfect garden before this,” says Geoff Kerry from nearby Brixham, who has stopped by the garden today: he visits Torquay often. “I think it’s a little bit reckless to have gone through this procedure of taking everything down if they weren’t planning to get to work on planting immediately.”
“Torbay palms are renowned,” adds Geoff’s wife Jill, who stands aghast as she surveys the site. “Palms don’t grow everywhere. You’d think, if they are growing, then you’d think twice. It’s devastating to be honest. It should be illegal to cut down trees like this.”
“It’s a shock,” agrees Mike Fletcher, another garden visitor, who moved to the town six years ago with his wife, Irene. “People have said it was all discussed in 2019 and then the works were delayed during the pandemic and they’ve just started now. I think it’s a massive shame.
The council’s explanation for the felling of the trees is that they were in a state of “decline” anyway, apparently evident in the die-back at the top of the palm, but that excuse holds no sway here.
“It didn’t look like they were in decline to me, I can’t see why they did it,” says Michael Starling, who frequently walks his dog around the gardens. “I’m not pleased that my council tax has been spent on this. It looks bloody awful.”
“I do understand the attachment to the palm trees,” concedes Conservative councillor Adam Billings, cabinet member for Pride in Place on Torbay council. “But the purpose of those trees was always only to last 50-70 years. Those particular palm trees weren’t there in the original 1924 garden. They were about 50 years old [they were planted in the 1970s, as palms had been periodically added and replaced over the years], so they probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer. The council has done a poor job of communicating that. The levels of consultation, while they did happen, were not adequate.”
For his part, Billings claims that he didn’t hear about the felling until 7pm on Tuesday evening, hours after the works had been completed at 3pm by the council’s retained contractors, SWISCo Ltd.
According to Billings, the previous Liberal Democrat council administration, which signed off the work in 2021 (which was subsequently delayed by Covid-19 restrictions) had “delegated too much authority to council staff” leaving the current administration in “a situation where, through trying to do something good, we have created a negative story”.
According to the staff of the local Conservative MP, Kevin Foster, 20 to 25 residents have got in touch to complain. “This shouldn’t have happened,” he says. “There are clear lessons to be learnt here with regards to legacy council decisions taken by council officers on behalf of the new administration.”
This is the final nail in the coffin in a turbulent year for our arboreal friends. In March, public outcry from Plymouth Council’s decision to fell 110 trees on the city’s Armada Way led to city council leader Richard Bingley’s resignation. Then, in September, the 300-year-old sycamore that lent its name to the iconic “gap” over the remains of Hadrian’s Wall was chainsawed down in the night (two men remain on bail), sparking a debate on whether new legislation is needed to protect them.
Next year, Billings promises 116 new trees will be planted in the gardens, along with 1,500 additional plants. The sundial fountain that was removed in the 1980s will be replaced too.
But here, there’s little confidence in the future. At the northern tip of the garden I catch Cicely Browne looking at the pre-rendered plan for how the new gardens will look for their centenary. She grew up in Torquay and remembers the gardens in their prime. “They used to be so colourful and lovely. It’s shocking they’ve done this at a time of year where Christmas lights are up, when people are visiting. Gardeners here used to win awards all-year round. I just don’t understand why they couldn’t have a good winter scheme.”
“I think the first time I even saw a palm tree was in this town actually, not here but nearby, down by the seafront.”
Starling notes that he has “no faith at all the council will deliver on its promises, I’d say it’s probably just a ruse” while Browne shrugs off Billings’ point about the renovation. “It’s good that they’re doing something, I suppose. But what the new scheme is missing is colour, at least in this design. I hope there’s colour.”
Billings says lessons have been learnt from all of this. He believes the reaction to the tree felling has sharpened his resolve to ensure the council delivers on its promises for the gardens’ centenary. “We’re getting a lot of national media coverage lately that knocks Torbay, and I won’t stand for that – it’s totally fair that we take a slap on the wrist for the clumsy way we’ve gone about this, but there’s ultimately going to be a good result here. This is investment in a prime seafront location.
“Now we need to deliver a garden even more brilliant than we intended when the scheme was agreed in 2019,” he continues. “If you were in my shoes, you’d be ensuring that we are delivering something truly fantastic wouldn’t you?” And to the naysayers? “I stood for election saying I wanted to improve the area for local people, and that’s what I’m determined we do. Come to the reopening, I guarantee you’ll be impressed.”
