Avenues and Boulevards

DEFINITION

These are the type of street that have trees on one or both sides, an arrangement that was typical in Victorian times. For example, Radford or Gregory Boulevards. The practicalities of maintaining trees and ensuring these do not damage services and road infrastructure meant that in modern times, trees have gradually disappeared from the urban landscape. However, the health and wellbeing advantages of incorporating trees in residential areas are huge and have been strongly evidenced through research in the past few decades; this, without mentioning how important they are for other species and for our planet. National government has recently made a request for tree-lined avenues to be incorporated in housing schemes.

DIMENSIONS - 14.5m to 23.5m wide

Avenues have two lanes with a total vehicular width of 5.5m for up to 150 dwellings and 6.5m for more than 150 dwellings; and a 2m wide adopted footpath on both sides. The highway authority will not adopt trees in highways but they need to adopt foot-ways, and these must be adjacent to highways without different ownership strips in the middle. Parks and Open Spaces department will adopt avenue and boulevard trees but they request that these are in 5m wide verges to achieve a decent amount of growth and healthy canopy cover. When a designated cycling lane is necessary, this must be adjacent to one of the pedestrian footpaths to be adopted and it must be 3m wide.