My friend posted these photos of her recent holiday to the Isle of Wight. Straight away, I knew they were Holm Oaks by the foliage. These trees, which blight much of the south coast of the UK, are not indigenous to these shores as they come from Spain and Morocco. It is believed along with the equally invasive and non indigenous Sycamore that the Romans brought them to our shores. They grow in most soil conditions, but their roots will not grow below soil levels where there are no nutrients for them in sand, clay, chalk, etc. Instead of the root growing downwards into the ground and looking like a mirror image of the tree above, like a weightlifter's dumbbell, they instead on hillsides grow up and down hillsides and across the hillside like a mesh or netting system. This means that in many cases, where the topsoil is only a few meters deep, they do not have massive root systems that anchor them into the ground like they would on flat ground inland. As both Simon and I have demonstrated in videos and photos of these trees up by the Radnor Cliff, west end of the Leas Promenade, their root systems are shallow. What roots you can see are gradually having the soil washed away from around them with every rainfall. As these trees grow taller, heavier, and their canopies get denser and spread out with every storm and strong wind blowing the canopies that the force rebounds down the tree trunks to the roots below. Eventually, the tree, acting like a giant lever on its own roots, cannot hold itself in the ground and, after really heavy rainfall, will simply wash down the cliff face/hillside rootball and all and bolt upright, which we saw with identical Holm Oaks on the Road of Remembrance in January/ February 2024.
You can clearly see this happening in the photos shown on the IOW, with one tree on its side, with hardly any rootball attached to it.
This is why we have been calling for all of these Holm Oaks across the Leas Promenade to be taken down where they grow above the cliff top, and at the same time, as being a threat to the stability of the cliff/hillside they are a serious threat to life and property as well as to any means to get from the top to the bottom as we have seen with road and path closures.
These same trees, at the same time that spread themselves by self-seeding their acorns that drop to the ground or are spread further by the winds, which grow in fierce wooded, almost forest-like formations. They become an effective wall that blocks out light reaching the ground beneath them, and in our case, on the Leas Promenade, resulting in a continuing spread and loss of even more precious sea views.
It is these far-reaching panoramic sea views that our tourists and visitors who drive our town's economy, as well as we who live here, come to visit and see, and not come here for just a walk in the woods.
It's a real pity that Folkestone & Hythe District Council, over decades, has failed to grasp this very serious issue and its dire consequences for the future not only of the Leas Promenade but also as the lifeblood and main artery that is at the heart of Folkestone.
They continue to ignore this to all our peril.

Please share our Facebook Group and our petition to all your friends and family as we desperately need all the support we can get.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/746105824775303