This is the sight that greeted us this morning - the tree surgeons were hard at it at 8am. We're all really shocked that this has been so rushed through: the tree surgeons were instructed two days ago, and a bat survey conducted yesterday.

1900 people signed this petition in less than a week, showing the strength of feeling amongst us all, yet Lewisham Council went ahead anyway, without any meaningful community engagement.

We're drafting our response to the Council, which will focus on:

1. Their promise to us to 'replace' the tree (we've questions around species, location, and cost)
2. Their community engagement on this (for example, we know the footbridge replacement has been discussed since 2012 in Council meetings, yet councillors weren't kept up to date, and the website mentions pruning, rather than removal, of trees)
3. Their future approach to these types of projects.

Our ask is to meet with them face-to-face.

We're working with Climate Action Lewisham on this as we're so aware from the strength of support that this is a really widespread problem.

Thanks again; we'll keep you updated.