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

Sycamores often self seed and grow like weeds. However I knew one cream -variegated sycamore during my childhood and have never forgotten it.

Grammaretto

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.

Same here. I have a pine tree overhanging my house that is twice the size of my house. It’s terrifying when the wind blows; although I can’t actually see it myself I know what it looks like. There is a loose branch on it and I’m concerned that it could crash down onto my driveway. The farmer tells me to get a tree surgeon out to remove it as he thinks it’s quite firmly wedged in and doesn’t pose a threat.The pigeons roost in it and poo all over my car and the patio. And now the silver birch nearby has reached the size where its seeds cover my garden and are trodden into the house. I love trees but, if I had my time again I would never buy a house next to them. At least all of the sycamore trees were removed by the farmer because he needed some phone lines putting up when he built a property for one of his farm workers in a nearby field.

I was rather surprised caleo. It's an unusual maple and it looks like it will be staying.
A year or two ago I had a young Ash felled near the maple without considering for a moment it should be protected. It was self seeded and too near a neighbours wall and my back gate.

I'm sure your young oak will be fine.
I'm trying to grow an oak from an acorn. The acorn was collected from beneath the Birnam Oak, near Dunkeld. (Mentioned in Shakespeare) I planted it out on my front lawn 2 years ago. It's still only about 2ft tall with a wire cage to protect it from deer.

This tree wasn’t a threat to human life. It was more important than the leaves making a mess of the car park in a third rate restaurant.

stag headed oak trees, with big deadbanches can live for another 100 years or more.

Invaluable in carbon capture alone. Older trees, like oaks, have been shown to increase wood production in response to elevated CO2 levels, effectively locking in the greenhouse gas. The butchered oak at Whitewebbs is only 500 metres from the M25.

It would be interesting for a value to be put on the benefit that trees give to the planet.

That’s not correct. That’s the total number of deaths in England and Wales registered under a particular code ICD10 Code W20. This covers death from:

cave-in without asphyxiation or suffocation collapse of building, except on fire or falling rock, stone or tree.

ONS say:

Unfortunately, no further breakdown of ICD-10 code W20 is available, so it is not possible to identify how many of these deaths were specifically due to falling trees; they could include deaths as a result of being struck by other things, such as rocks or stones. It is not possible to identify whether the accident occurred at a public or private residence.

An old report from The National Tree Safety Group said that within the UK, there are approximately 6.4 public fatalities per year which are attributable to the falling trees or branches. Of these, 30 per cent, possibly more, occur during episodes of strong wind, suggesting trees themselves, and tree-management regimes, are less culpable than extreme weather.

I can’t believe that trees have a higher value than human life. But we all have our unique point of view.

I can’tbelieve people supporting the destruction of a 500 year old tree which was overgrowing a car park. So parking cars more important than the biological ecosystem. No wonder we have the most nature depleted country in the world. People’s selfishness will lead to the destruction of the planet.

Deaths caused by falling trees as supplied by the ONS for England and Wales 2013 to 2019 were 219 in total.

ronib

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 think I'd like to see statistics of the 000s (?) with broken bones after falling over tree roots, it's hardly normal human behaviour. As for death from stepping into the road, if motorists obeyed speed limits and gave way to pedestrians, there would be fewer deaths all round.
I'm glad I won't be here to see the earth paved over and largely unliveable on but I do feel sorry for today's children.

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.