I can tell you that in the first photo, which is how it looks now, there is a clump of Holm Oaks in the immediate distance and a much larger clump further on, and once past the old toilets on Madeira Walk there is a wall of Holm Oaks stretching 400 yards or more where you can't see the sea and probably have not been able to for 15 years or so. At least 4 memorial benches at the west end of the Leas that once enjoyed views of the sea have been taken away by the council. Why would anyone want to sit on a bench looking at a wall of trees 6ft away?
In the first photo, close to the railings by the steps, there are many Sycamore saplings which are already 6ft tall and are out of reach of even the longest-armed parks and gardens gardener with a long hedge trimmer.
The typical sod it and leave it be to grow attitude of this council will mean that these out-of-reach sycamore saplings that can grow 2 feet a year will be 25 feet tall and completely block out the sea view in less than 10 years. This is happening right along the Leas Promenade, and this council will be gone in 2 years, and I doubt the then massive Unitary Authority of Dovefolkbury or Ashfolkbury or Greater East Kent District, whatever it will be called, will not be in the least bit interested in the Leas.
The second photo shows you what the Leas Promenade will look like right along within 10 years.
Don't believe me well, the last photos show you the Zig Zag path, which opened in 1927, and the trees were in the lower park and were starting to ascend towards the mid-slopes. You can see the Toll House, but you can't see the Toll House anywhere now from the top of the Leas. The 1987 great storm, when 15 million trees came down, I can't find any photos of trees down on the Leas. That's probably because any trees growing then were not tall enough to be brought down and were shielded by the actual cliff face.
What we are seeing along the Leas now is a wall of tall trees perched precariously on the cliff top, consisting of shallow topsoil below which is what the authorities are calling Folkestone Formation Sand. A mixture of sand and weakly cemented sandstone that, until the last 20 years or so, just like above the Road of Remembrance, has never had to support 40-foot-tall trees weighing several tons before.
Photos stretching back more than 120 years of the Leas show the cliff top and midslopes supported nothing other than tall grasses and scrub. The march of time and councils doing nothing was all that was needed to see the almost complete forestation of the mid-slopes, and within the next 10 years or so, perhaps the only view of the sea you will have will be on top of the Leas Cliff Hall.  

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