Certainly a spectacular act of vandalism! Such people are often walking Crimewaves throughout their lives, and one can only guess whatever other senseless things they have also done!
If Community Service is the lenient sentence, tree planting would be a good choice, IMO.
TBH, Sycamores grow like weeds in most places. I am sure you could plant another one and it will be impressively big in twenty years.
My favourite tree is probably the Rowan or Mountain Ash:
I found this £60 Rowan sapling sadly dried out and neglected on the back of a council lorry, ready for disposal. It still had a few green leaves so I snaffled it up and planted it in my good neighbour Dickie's garden.
As I explained to him, it will increase his property value on resale and bring joy to the neighbourhood, perhaps even helping us win the coveted "Portsmouth's Best Dressed Street" award. Which is very good for our property values too.
The red berries in Autumn will also help the birdlife.
I am also encouraging plants like Apple trees, foxgloves and aquilegeas in other neighbours' gardens:
The big green plant is an Echium from New Zealand which likes our climate and grows 12 foot tall with a spike of purple flowers. Can't wait!
Our street often draws compliments from visitors. It is the trees that distinguish it from other poorer and more blighted neighbourhoods:
As Voltaire said, growing philosophical after witnessing the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake, we must all tend to our own gardens.
BTW, I notice Keir Starmer is planning an extended council tax on large gardens in the UK. I would do quite the opposite, and put a tax on small, dull and shabby front gardens, especially ones cluttered with waste bins, rubble and broken bicycles.
If Community Service is the lenient sentence, tree planting would be a good choice, IMO.
TBH, Sycamores grow like weeds in most places. I am sure you could plant another one and it will be impressively big in twenty years.
My favourite tree is probably the Rowan or Mountain Ash:
I found this £60 Rowan sapling sadly dried out and neglected on the back of a council lorry, ready for disposal. It still had a few green leaves so I snaffled it up and planted it in my good neighbour Dickie's garden.
As I explained to him, it will increase his property value on resale and bring joy to the neighbourhood, perhaps even helping us win the coveted "Portsmouth's Best Dressed Street" award. Which is very good for our property values too.
The red berries in Autumn will also help the birdlife.
I am also encouraging plants like Apple trees, foxgloves and aquilegeas in other neighbours' gardens:
The big green plant is an Echium from New Zealand which likes our climate and grows 12 foot tall with a spike of purple flowers. Can't wait!
Our street often draws compliments from visitors. It is the trees that distinguish it from other poorer and more blighted neighbourhoods:
As Voltaire said, growing philosophical after witnessing the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake, we must all tend to our own gardens.
BTW, I notice Keir Starmer is planning an extended council tax on large gardens in the UK. I would do quite the opposite, and put a tax on small, dull and shabby front gardens, especially ones cluttered with waste bins, rubble and broken bicycles.
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From the first arrest of the two defendants the Police have appealed for social media users to not speculate on this matter.
It has to be said that whatever ones gut feelings on this matter the two defendants are innocent UNTIL proven guilty. That is the UK legal position
until a verdict has been issued by the Courts.
I am surprised that some posts have not been removed/redacted by the moderator; I made the above points when reporting one particular post which
clearly set out to vilify the defendants at the outset of the legal process - well prior to a Court Verdict being issued. That vilification may just be actionable
by the defendants against that poster - whatever the Court Verdict may turn out to be!
It has to be said that whatever ones gut feelings on this matter the two defendants are innocent UNTIL proven guilty. That is the UK legal position
until a verdict has been issued by the Courts.
I am surprised that some posts have not been removed/redacted by the moderator; I made the above points when reporting one particular post which
clearly set out to vilify the defendants at the outset of the legal process - well prior to a Court Verdict being issued. That vilification may just be actionable
by the defendants against that poster - whatever the Court Verdict may turn out to be!
And there's me struggling to get a pineapple top to grow. At least I got an acorn to turn into a tree (well, 4 foot of sapling). The Christmas tree that I planted (it was a dig your own) is doing well, about 25 foot.
The responsible individual and his wingman appeared in court last week. Both pleaded not guilty. Hopefully the judge will throw the book at them. On a separate note, not far from where I live on the north Norfolk coast, a guy decided to cut down 20 beech trees that had preservation orders on them about 3 or 4 years ago. He was fined £200 000 (10 smackeroos per tree). Doesn’t bring trees back that had stood for a couple of hundred years, but he got what he deserved.
I still don't understand this new trend where people expend a fair amount of effort in damaging things. It wouldn't seem that it was a spur of the moment, walking past sort of thing since it took a saw. What misfires in someone's brain to where they decide "I'm going to get my saw and cut down that tree over there" ? There was a news story the other day where 1 guy keyed almost 100 cars in one night. He didn't just happen on a car that he hated for some reason, he went house to house, street to street and spent a lot of time on it.
UK law is very strict about discussing the details of a criminal prosecution ie ‘are they guilty or not?’, motivation, case details etc. You can ‘try by media’ in most countries but absolutely not here. For that very reason, all news outlets in the UK tread very carefully in that space and so should we here.
😊
No one is discussing any criminal or civil prosecution which has commenced, on here and no one has been finger pointing.
It's perfectly acceptable to speculate on the possible punishment to be meted out to whomever is convicted.
The accused have only been named this week so any prior general comments on here are not breaking any laws and their names haven't been quoted on this thread as far as I know.
I think it's something to be with feeling totally powerless and inconsequential; they do something to make people take notice of them, I feel quite powerless and inconsequential, but I direct my efforts in a constructive direction, partly because it occupies my mind, and helps me understand stuff, for some reason, some people chose the opposite.
I can remember a teacher at school telling us of his hero, some guy who wanted to turn delinquent boys lives around. When he found out that one of the boys in his care had broken a window, he went around the school with the boy, braking the windows himself, eventually the boy saw how pointless it was, and never wanted to do it again. When the teacher told us of this, I thought it was stupid, but now I realize that, although a waste of windows, it turned that boy's life around.
It doesn't excuse such behaviour, but it helps understand it.