Dear all, 

The Senlac Road Plane is again under imminent threat of felling. Please consider writing again to Lewisham Council to let them know what you think about this. Email addresses and template are at the bottom of this update.

Your support last year meant that we have kept our beautiful tree alive for nearly 18 months after the first attempt to destroy it. Your signatures, messages and emails to the council meant that they really knew how committed we all are to protecting this and other trees, and that they agreed to meet us and discuss next steps. 

That meeting happened in April and was attended by the cabinet member for environment and climate change, Vince Buchanan, head of Parks, Sports and Leisure, representatives from finance dept at Lewisham, representatives from community groups working on climate and biodiversity in Lewisham, barrister Paul Powesland from Lawyers for Nature, and concerned local residents. At the meeting four actions were agreed: that the council officers would set up a working group with Lewisham residents concerned with the protection of mature trees, that they would share Lewisham's tree policy, that consideration of the innumerable benefits that mature trees bring would be included in this policy and that they would discuss whether a copy of the council's own survey of the site could be shared with us. 

The main focus of the meeting was on the injustice to our communities of insurance companies being legally able to mandate the felling of mature trees in cases of subsidence - which saves them money but costs us our health and wellbeing. An additional problem is that these companies do not acknowledge the issue of heave, which is well known to occur after felling of large trees. Councils are not liable for this damage however as the tree is no longer there - so there is no monitoring of the outcomes post felling. Our council were unable to tell us about any outcomes following the felling of other mature trees in the area. We have been told that between 70-110 trees have been felled for subsidence claims in the past 5 years in Lewisham alone! 

This is a national problem, and one that is likely to worsen with increasing heat and drought as the climate crisis progresses. The irony is that the trees are desperately needed to stabilise our climate and protect us against the health impacts of that same crisis. At the meeting we offered our support to the council with resisting the destruction of our mature trees for corporate financial greed. We have offered on multiple occasions to work with them to campaign for change and protect our vital assets. 

Unfortunately they have not taken us up on this offer, none of the commitments the council has made has yet been actioned and we have now been notified that the tree will be destroyed imminently. 

We call on officers and elected members of Lewisham council to honour the commitments made to us earlier in the year and to continue the dialogue about how this tree and many others (including 2 more in the very nearby area) can be protected. 

We must campaign to change the processes by which decision making is made in cases of subsidence - we cannot allow insurers to continue destroying our vital tree canopy. We want to support the council to be able to protect homes while protecting trees - both are vital for our health and wellbeing. 

Please write to Lewisham council asking them to honour the commitments they made: to establish a working group with committed Lewisham residents on how to protect mature trees in the borough, to would share Lewisham's tree policy with concerned residents, to include consideration of the innumerable benefits that mature trees bring in the policy, and to discuss whether a copy of the council's own survey of the site could be shared with us - and to state clearly the reasons if this is not possible.  

Further, ask them to acknowledge the urgent and widespread nature of this problem - there are residents groups across the UK being required to actively protect trees from multiple threats including from insurers as in our case. One tree we are aware of in Haringey has been occupied by local residents since April this year due to imminent threat of felling for the same reason as ours. We want Lewisham council to work with councils in other boroughs to coordinate action - we are not alone in this fight. If we work together we can win this. 

Please address your email to: 

Louise Krupski, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate: cllr_louise.krupski@lewisham.gov.uk

Vince Buchanan, Head of Parks, Sports and Leisure: vince.buchanan@lewisham.gov.uk

Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham: damien.egan@lewisham.gov.uk

Hilary Moore, councillor for Grove Park Ward: hilary.moore@lewisham.org.uk

Mark Jackson, councillor for Grove Park Ward: mark.jackson@lewisham.org.uk

Suzannah Clarke, councillor for Grove Park Ward: suzannah.clarke@lewisham.org.uk

and please copy in our email at savelewishammaturetrees@gmail.com so we know how many messages have been sent. 

THANK YOU!

Anna