Success of arbour seating ‘plane’ to see in Denmark

Denmark’s deciduous London plane trees in Berridge Park will again provide public seating after three arbour seats were installed last week.

As part of a Tidy Towns Project 20 years ago, Andrew Brinsden and Ken Dowdell installed wooden arbour seats to protect the trees and provide extra public seating.

But two years ago, those seats were removed.

“Two years ago the seats had passed their use-by date and were removed,” Mr Brinsden said.

“They were in disrepair and all the screws had rusted out.

“And they were being vandalised because they were easy to break, so we got rid of them.”

Now, with the help of Rob Plant, Mr Brinsden has installed a hardier version of the public amenity.

“We decided on metal seats and Rob Plant and I considered a large number of alternative designs,” Mr Brinsden said.

“A circular structure was considered too hard to construct and finally an octagon seat was chosen.”

The seats cost $8100 to construct and have been powder-coated by Albany Powders, which Mr Brinsden said would help protect the seating. “All the welds are covered by the powder coating so there will be no rust,” he said.

“The beauty of the colour I chose is when the sun shines through the tree onto one section of the seat it changes colour — it becomes a brighter copper colour.

“And they won’t get too hot in summer because they are under the shade of the trees.”