Forest Hill Christmas Tree 2018

I know my last post was about the Christmas Tree as well (!) but I’m baffled - are they ever coming to take it down?

I think our tree was desperately sad this year, I actually never saw it lit and days before christmas someone ripped the decorations off reachable branches and threw them over the station car park.
usually seeing the tree cheers me at christmas, but this year it just felt unloved and unwanted.
the plastic barriers ( which I can’t remember in years gone by) didn’t deter hooligans
and now seeing the poor thing leaning to one side just saddens me more

I know, I felt the same. I think a better place for it would be on top of the planters in the middle of the station car park, nearest the road. Then everyone would be able to see it, they’d have no issues getting round it and it’d be much more difficult to vandalise!

But I feel like the council have forgotten about it at this stage… though given they haven’t even managed to replace my recycling bin after more than a year of chasing, I’m not holding my breath!

I am wondering why Forest Hill’s Christmas tree, complete with decorations, is still up and resplendent. It is almost February…

It is rather shoddy in my opinion too. It never looked that good, had horrible barriers around it (on three sides) and was quickly vandalised. And it’s still here as we are almost into February…

I hope we do better next year.

I wonder if anyone who goes past regularly (I do not) can take a photo and report on FixMyStreet?

A council source told me that a rare and endangered West Indian canary has set up a nest in the tree and that they are unable to take it down until it has moved on

I might be very gullible but is that really true??

I wanted to know but was afraid to ask.

Me too!!

Official response:

Sorry about the Forest Hill Station Tree – we have made two attempts already and caused havoc with the traffic. We usually install the tree around 5am, but because the removal process is a lot quicker we was hoping to carry this out within normal working hours – but no luck. We will try again early hours tomorrow.

Enough is enough. I’ve filed a complaint with lewisham council. I sent the following earlier today.

Dear Lewisham Council. I hope you’re well,
I am writing to inform you of the giant miserable looking monstrosity of a Christmas tree that is still erected outside Forest Hill station as of the 29th January 2019. You might have missed it (I have attached a picture of said tree for reference), although I find that hard to believe, since it’s about 20ft tall and surrounded by some of the most lack lustre barriers that serve more as an eye sore and embarrassment than as a genuine deterrent to vandalism. Here is a link to the Christmas song recorded by British glam rock band Wizzard entitled ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPc7esgvsA
Catchy and joyous, I’ll give you that.
However, imagine for a second what it would actually entail if we did in fact celebrate xmas everyday! The rampant capitalism and consumerism! The constant having to endure your extended family’s presence! The disgraceful gluttony and food consumption! The weight gain! Sound appealing? No, I thought as much. It would be like being stuck in purgatory and completely detract any value from this seasonal festivity. In all likelihood such decadence would probably lead to the destruction of civilised society itself. Hence I implore you to stop making the residents of se23 look like utter mugs. We all want to move on with our lives and perhaps celebrate spring without a xmas present outside our local train station.
Show some compassion and common sense.
Please could you notify me of when we can all expect that joke of a tree to be removed?
Obliged,
Guy
Forest Hill Resident.

The council source has told me that the canary has now migrated to East Dulwich and that the tree shall be felled onto WHSmiths immediately

Council response:

“Thank you for your recent complaint received on 29 January 2019. We are aware of this issue, it is being dealt with by our street lighting contractor and TFL. I hope they are able reach a resolution before we see the break down of civilised society as we know it. Please contact me if the tree is still there on Monday and I will see if I can find out any more information. Unfortunately as we are dealing with a third party the council is unable to take any direct action to just have the tree removed. We do take all complaints seriously, and I hope that I have demonstrated this to you in my investigation and my response to all aspects of your complaint. I hope that I have adequately captured the nature of your concerns and addressed each one of them with clear reasons for my responses. However, if you are dissatisfied with the outcome and wish to progress to Stage 2 of our complaints process please provide details of why my response has not resolved your complaint and what action you would require as a resolution.”

If one more week passes we should galvanise the troops and remove ourselves.
I’m contemplating starting a gofundme to raise funds for an industrial woodchipper…
All ideas welcome.

I’m contemplating organising an Easter carol service around the tree if anybody is interested.

We could pretend the red balls are red hearts and inaugurate the first annual Valentree.

That tree must be nice and dry by now. Our one burnt wonderfully on the fire.

Can’t believe how many trees are just dumped on the pavements and streets by residents, Walked down Kemble earlier and counted 3 on the side of the street i was walking /dodging ??

They probably think the Christmas tree fairy will come take them in the middle of the night ??

But it does. Lewisham aren’t too bad at collecting dumped waste, and there seems to be no attempt to investigate or reprimand dumpers.

Last week there was most of a three piece sofa on Houston Road with a bed base, this week there was a pile of sofa cushions dumped in the flower bed outside Family Action and rugs dropped at the other end of Houston Road.

It’s all gone in a few days. Why would anyone pay £15 for bulky waste collection?

That response to your complaint has an aura of ‘not our circus, not our monkeys’ about it

Well its a good job we all dont take this stance, There be more *rap then there already is on every street, The council put up recycling points for people to take there trees after Christmas, So there just being lazy dumping out on the street.

I’m going to chop up the pile of two nearest to me on Kemble Rd this weekend. One of the owners dumped their’s next to my neighbour’s skip…I kindly moved it back.

Another neighbour over the road dumped their 7ft tree in the road…yes actually on the highway. They were about to move house and presumably didn’t want the hassle. I put it back on their drive. Twice.

All of the 3 above have cars…I don’t. There is no excuse not to drive your tree the 5 mins to Mayow Park.

I’d be happy to dispose of anyone’s tree in my brown bin if people a) knocked and asked, and b) did the chopping. Took me last than 5 mins to do my 6ft tree.

Yuletide rant over.

Gone until December…

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it was the saddest tree we’ve had since i moved here, I never saw it lit up, and it got vandalised very quickly with reachable decorations pulled off and smashed.
the sight of it every day with those barriers round it unlit unloved just made me feel quite depressed.
as christmas tree vibes go this one was not ‘feeling in the christmas spirit’ from day 1 and I think it just wished it had stayed in the forest rather than being dug up and carted to a corner of the south circular.
btw I am not a ‘tree whisperer’