can you make a protest about an ancient tree being cut down?

I can't understand why the tree surgeons undertook it. They couldn't have been knowledgeable at all.

When back in December I needed a tree surgeon. I had 3 quotes and the one I went with merely pollarded one tree and left the other saying that it was important to prevent flooding or erosion. The trees held up the bank!
One had already fallen and landed on a neighbour's house! My trees were sycamore and nothing like that magnificent oak.

Boycotting Toby Carvery isn't going to bring it back.

I don't think those tree surgeons were " experienced qualified tree surgeons " it looks like they might have climbed out of a van, knocked on their door and said "the tree needs trimming Mr / Mrs "

Enough is left to be recoverable aand the tree was in danger of shedding branches or falling down and injurying and killing people.

If everyone cared so much why hadn't they ensured that there was a Tree Preservation Order on the tree ?

The tree in Sycamore Gap was a case of pure and simple vandalism, somewhat difference form a company protecting itself form being sued by its ccustomers if they were injured by branches blown off the tree.

I think the answer immediately is for each of us putting an hour into requesting a TPO for the lovely trees in our own area.
I have requested one twice now and both been granted.
One was a plane and one a lime.

The lime was one of a pair of limes. Two stunning huge trees. I came home one weekend after being away and the first was down. 😱
The second had an emergency TPO put on it in case they intended to do the same.

Here's a link to how to do it.

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/protecting-trees-and-woods/campaign-with-us/take-action-in-your-community/tree-preservation-orders/#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20place,to%20be%20a%20local%20amenity.

They must usually be seen as an "amenity" from a public place. I said they contributed a lot to the nature of the road, that gave pleasure, attracted birds, made the environment much nicer.
It was easy.

I sent a photo and a location and our tree officer came out to look.

I tried to do a "block" of trees along a road but that didn't work. It had to be tree by tree.

Maybe I'll return to my list and chip away at it.
My daughter has just had her garden horribly "exposed to the world" by the removal of an old sycamore (assumed about 150 years old by size).
She had erroneously thought it had a TPO. It was stunning, but in her neighbour's garden.

People take them down to block pave their front gardens it seems to me.

As Wetherspoons would no doubt cut down the tree too in the same circumstances why would anybody do that?

I wish someone would vandalize the sycamore in my neighbours garden! Four professional tree surgeons spent four hours last Friday, snipping out twigs! We neighbours affected by the huge shadow it casts, can’t see any difference.

M0nica - why didn't they contact the council tree officer I wonder? It was council land after all.

Was it there before you moved in Georgesgran?

According to media reports an arboriculturist had assessed the tree as dangerous and diseased in part. If it had fallen on a person or car we’d be reading different headlines. I do agree about applying for TPO’s on significant trees.

I have submitted plans to build a house in my garden. The planners have replied with a list of objections.
One is that a tree, which I planted, has now to be protected and cannot be felled.
I live in a conservation area and any tree once it reaches a certain height
and girth is automatically protected.

I think the issue in this case is that this tree seems to have died back in some areas (according to the pub chain owners). They engaged a contractor who took down virtually the whole tree rather than employing true tree surgery skills.
If you read their full statement it does say the tree had a partial problem (not the whole thing).

Had any dangerous/dead branches been cut back to the strong living tree I think the tree would continue to mature and flourish and no uproar and dismay would have happened.

I know the tree. There was no need to do what was done.

You can see from the BBC photos that it isn’t immediately next to the Toby car park.

If the tree was thought to need pruning then that’s what could have been done sympathetically by professionals. Instead it has been vandalised.

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/press-centre/2025/04/london-ancient-tree-felling-shock/

Whitewebbs Park is already going to be devastated by development by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club:

www.cprelondon.org.uk/news/a-dark-day-for-parks-as-whitewebbs-development-approved/

whitewebbspark.org.uk/whitewebbs-park/

I have a 200 year old oak in my front garden which does not have a TPO on it. I have to prove this to tree surgeons each time I have it trimmed by providing a current letter from the council. A competent local tree officer will know which are the important and ancient trees in his or her remit whether or not they have a TPO.

In conjunction with what else is going on at Whitewebbs with THFC and the £2 million it has paid the council so it can lay down astro turf, put in cafes, car parks and charging points, something about this stinks.

Silverbrooks it's almost certainly cheaper to chop it down than get a proper person to deal with it professionally!

I've seen it before.
My local council tree person says trees are often chopped down with the excuse that they are diseased.
She is very good in my opinion.
I just wish they worked over the weekend as that's generally when trees seem to be taken down in my area.

There was a wonderful horse chestnut tree near us which was very old and decades of children came to collect conkers every autumn. It was glorious when in flower.

I came home one lunchtime to see it being cut down and was so upset. Apparently as there was no Tree Preservation Order on it they could do what they liked. I still miss it because it was beautiful. It was in very good condition too, not dangerous.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202504/medium-4pyuqd-img-5531.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202504/medium-9itndu-img-3575.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202504/medium-bpsjct-img-4134.png

It was NS but it’s certainly grown since then, 30odd years ago. Together DH and I used to take raking up the leaves (and keeping them bagged over winter until the garden collections began again) and pulling the hundreds of seedlings out of the lawn and borders in our stride. Unfortunately, this is all a major task now. It’s hard to explain but the tree is at the far end of the neighbour’s garden, where it joins mine, but the position of their house to it, means it’s not in their sight. I could get my gardener to take back the boughs that hang over my garden, but that wouldn’t look good at all. My gardener says sycamore in gardens are just big, dirty weeds.

The only good thing that came from the dreadful vandalising of the sycamore in the gap was that it did make people more aware of things like TPO and what very old trees they have in their own vicinity.

This again seems like crocodile tears from toby inns. If they had had a reputable tree surgeon do the work I am sure it would have been able to deal with specific branches that needed to be sorted but not left the tree in such a dreadful state. They either did it deliberately or possibly just got the cheapest quote without checking the credentials of the so called tree surgeon they used; or of course the could have chosen the worst in the hope that they could get rid of it , without getting the blame!!
Well their behaviour should backfire, and personally I would boycott the Toby Inn, send a letter to the local paper and put it on social media so that they, and all other self centred business or council or whoever think they can do this and get away with it, that we will not let this keep happening and that we have long memories.

Perhaps loss of money is the only way they learn to behave responsibility. Can we not now get a by- law locally that any planned destruction of trees has to be advertised in the local paper for say 3 weeks (and not hidden in minute type) and posted on the noticeboard at the council etc. so that if there is no intent to do anything illegal , we can all see what is planned and check it out. I would also like to see councils refuse any planning permission at all for buildings of any kind, where a tree has been "mistakenly" cut down or run into with big diggers or done anything to that means that the tree dies. If the perpetrators gain no advantage from their vandalism and are also pointed out as destroyers of these trees, it will help to stop such things in the future.

I would also like to suggest something that we can all do to help tree planting. Throughout my life, to mark occasions , happy or sad , I choose to donate a tree to the woodland trust. So over the years I think I have planted a small wood. My parents ruby wedding, my baby grandaughters sad death, all are recorded with a tree. I think as our family has taken from the world this is a small way to give something back. Who knows some other people may like to do this and perhaps Toby Inns could make some small reparation by planting a complete wood!!

* I have somehow posted inappropriate pictures and have asked GNHQ to remove them, or my entire post.

I would like to see councils look after trees much more effectively. The council has a very large untrimmed horse chestnut with roots taking up the very narrow pavement. Any ideas on a way forward? Not forgetting that cut down trees are always replaced.

I remember watching a year in the life of an oak tree on the television.

It is a major biodiversity eco-system in its own right - hosting up to 2500 other species including many more as it dies.

If you cut an old tree down you are destroying the habitat of all those species, so of course you are destroying the species themselves. That of course doesn’t take into account the carbon capture and other environmental and indeed cultural benefits for the human species.

Replacing a destroyed old tree with a young sapling does not cut it at all. By all means plant and nurture young trees, but not at the expense of ancient ones.

Interesting comment Wwm2 but how many broken bones from falling over tree roots equals biodiversity? Or even more inexplicably, human deaths from having to step into the road at a very precarious position? Plus of course the very real hazard of falling trees onto both motorists and households?

I could get my gardener to take back the boughs that hang over my garden

I think, Georgesgran, assuming you are in the UK, that you will find that you should offer them "back" to your neighbour and if they don't want them you could be in breach of the law if you just took them and left them there.

I am well aware of the mess from large deciduous trees in the autumn as I used to live right on the boundary of a mature woodland with an enormous beech next to me and a mature sycamore and chestnut in the garden.

Yes. A lot of work - but terrific leafmold!

Grammaretto, thanks for the heads-up.
I have grown an oak where it is no danger to man or buildings, and in view of your experience will discuss with my son the possibility of a tree preservation order.

The minister of the church I attended during the 1980s had a horror story about a neighbour who ringed each oak growing in a small public open space.

Educating the public is the only way forward.