Seven Dials

Image: © Simon Carey Taken: 12 Mar 2013

A view of the junction where the A2010, BB2122 and B2120 all cross each other along with a minor route, Prestonville Road. The small roundabout has been in place since the 1970s and has now been deemed problematic and the whole junction is now being redesigned and replaced with a large ellipse shaped roundabout. The improvements were to have included the removal of the 150 year old elm tree on Vernon Terrace, however, a protest which included two people spending three nights up the tree (One of those a director of a local bus service called the Big Lemon) and the support of the local Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has meant the council (Also run by the Greens) has climbed down for the time being and is now trying to find a solution to keep it. Perhaps if the council had held out until Monday the protesters may have come down due to the sub zero temperatures and all night snow. Saying that, it was the foresight of the council in the 1970s in creating an exclusion zone that preserved many of the town's elm trees when others were being destroyed by Dutch Elm Disease.

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