TREE work is to be carried out in Minehead’s Blenheim Gardens to make the park’s bandstand more visible and address safety concerns.

Tree consultant Simon Scotting inspected the gardens for Minehead Town Council last autumn and identified work needing to be carried out over the next 18 months.

Mr Scotting said some trees had suffered storm damage from time to time and some were overhanging footpaths, seating, a cafe and children’s play area, and a road access to the North Road car park.

He recommended a programme of removing dead branches and other deadwood, reducing the weight of lower lateral branches, crown raising, and taking out several dead trees and shrubs.

Blenheim Gardens has two mature oak trees near a footpath and benches which Mr Scotting said were both in good physiological condition with a fair overall structure.

Two other trees, both Atlas cedars, were seen to have had static cable bracing systems installed in the past.

Mr Scotting said this was usually done where a structural weakness of stems or limbs was identified within the tree and was to prevent tearing away or fracture of branches which were weakly attached or their weight caused excessive loading.

He said the general principle was the limb requiring restraint should be attached by a static cable or dynamic fabric restraint system to either a stronger limb or the main tree stem to safely suspend any broken parts.

However, it appeared the cables had failed because they were too small a diameter and were incorrectly positionied.

Mr Scotting said it meant the current restraint systems for both trees were not sufficient to perform their intended function.

He recommended leaving the trees but removing hanging and broken cable bracing because of the hazard to anybody who might climb them.

Future mitigation could be to reduce the length of branches.