Dear all the supporters of the beautiful Senlac Plane tree in Grove Park, 

I am so sorry to write with this very sad news but the tree was felled on Friday. As you can see we are absolutely devastated.

Since we last wrote to you the council was getting increasingly aggressive, demanding the names of the people in our group and threatening legal proceedings (injunctions) against us. 

Having failed to get any information or meaningful engagement out of the council and officers, we had in fact instructed a lawyer to communicate with the council. This action was in the form of a letter requesting the council's legal team to review the decision making process as we had significant concerns about this - lack of rigor in the assessment, refusal to disclose the original reports, refusal to consider other options such as the minimally disruptive resin treatment - which was paid for by the homeowner insurance in the Bristol Case. 

The wider context of this issue is that the case of our tree's "twin" the Plane Tree in Haringey has gone to the high court, and a judicial review has been granted. Our lawyer made Lewisham council's lawyer aware of this as the case could have had significant implications for the survival of the tree.

Lewisham council's lawyer actually agreed in a conversation with our lawyer to pause felling while all of these issues were looked at, and the car which had been guarding the tree was temporarily moved, in good faith. 

However we woke last Friday to the sound of chainsaws and arborists in the tree, destroying it. There was no warning to residents, and in fact one person was told that the tree was only being trimmed. An additional concern is that they did this in nesting season - we have no indication that they undertook a survey to ensure that there were no nests in the tree.

It took them about 3 hours to cut the tree down - destroying a tree that had been growing for 90 years. The local community are devastated - people were coming out of their houses to witness the death of our beloved tree, and as the branches came down, residents collected pieces to keep in memory. Since the felling we have been leaving notes of love and sadness on the stump. 

Your signatures and letters undoubtedly kept our beautiful plane alive for nearly two years longer than the original planned felling date, and as a community we are so grateful. This is not the end of the story for our mature trees though - they are at risk all over the country, and we want to continue fighting for each and every one.

Our lawyer is making a formal complaint to Lewisham's monitoring officer, and we can keep you up to date with this work. Additionally we are forming a network of similar campaigns to take action at a high level on this horrendous issue of insurance companies forcing the destruction of our precious, life giving trees. Let us know if you want to get involved! 

Please do let the council know what you think of their actions (especially given that they declared a Climate Emergency in 2019!) by emailing the usuals: 

Louise.Krupski@lewisham.gov.uk - Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Action

Vince.buchanan@lewisham.gov.uk - Head of Parks, Sports and Leisure 

James.lee@lewisham.gov.uk - Director of Communities, Partnerships and Leisure

Damien.egan@lewisham.gov.uk - Mayor of Lewisham

- and copy us in at savelewishammaturetrees@gmail.com

With love, sadness and quite a bit of rage which needs to be constructively channelled into action, 

Anna and the Lewisham Tree Protectors

PS - if you want to take action now - come along to The Big One this weekend! We'll be there with health professionals working on climate and health (at the Planetary Health Hub), other tree protection campaigns and lots of other groups working to make our world a better, safer place. 

https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-big-one/

https://planetaryhealthhub.co.uk/