Wow, what an amazing few days! Thank you all for the support. This petition was created (as you hopefully know, but to recap!) as we had it on good authority that the council were planning to secretly fell this tree on 13-15th January, despite years of community engagement, dialogue and evidence to suggest the tree is not causing the subsidence issue, and removing it could make ground conditions in this area worse. We hoped that this petition would help to evidence the role this tree plays in offering amenity to our community and local wildlife, and as a demonstration how much we care for it being retained.

Well, after less than 48 hours, this petition had received more than 1,500 signatures. Not bad, considering Wivenhoe is a town (some say, village!) of around around 7,500 individuals. People from surrounding areas who enjoy the landscape of Wivenhoe and visiting our town have been voicing their support, while people who have long departed the area but have fond memories of this tree are sharing their support and it's great to know how loved one tree can be. We have been also receiving messages of solidarity and community from those in locations across the UK who also might be losing an old oak tree under similar circumstances.

Alongside the petition, we have been pursuing other avenues to save the tree. We submitted the tree to Colchester Council for Tree Preservation Order on Sunday, while also logging it (pardon the pun!) with the Woodland Trust's trees at risk website.

Our suspicions on the tree's planned felling have been confirmed by Wivenhoe Town Council. Yesterday, Monday 6th January this petition, together with the growing Facebook group triggered an announcement from the council confirming their reasons for feling the tree and that they are indeed planning to fell the tree next week. After months of silence, seemingly due to pressure from insurers, it was helpful to hear more from the council, despite it seeming that they have missed opportunities to defend the tree and to meaningfully engage with the community. It was truly concerning to hear how much legal and financial intimidation has been mounting on them from the insurer in question.

It was disappointing to read from this statement that the council have failed to still fully appreciate the unique value that older oak trees offer to wildlife, and they are still suggesting that other biodiversity measures can 'more than offset the loss of the tree' (which they have provided no evidence to support) and we would suggest is misinformed. Needing to truly 'offset' the loss of this tree would limit the additional impact of any biodiversity measures locally significantly and would limit our efforts to mitigate biodiversity loss. And, of course, a 120+ year old tree cannot be replaced in its unique qualities as a result of simply being old in our lifetimes. And we would love to see this tree stay for future generations and become eventually a 200 year old, a 300 year old tree. We will not have any really ancient oak trees before long if this is how we treat old oaks.

Another worrying point this statement has raised is that the council statement refers to multiple trees, so we now know for sure that more trees than the Old King George Oak tree are equally at risk of felling. More information is needed to clarify which trees are at threat and to appraise their potential in terms of amenity and environmental value. We are considering making more TPO applications to save other potentially affected trees. There are very few trees protected in Wivenhoe.

In more positive news, this campaign is gaining traction. Yesterday 6th January a group of local residents gathered around the tree to show their support for saving it and seeking alternatives. This gathering was attended by journalists and photographers and has already been featured by the BBC and Colchester Gazette. Thank you to these news reporters for picking up the story, we hope more will follow suit.

As you will appreciate, this is a fast-moving situation. We are in dialogue with Colchester Council directly. We are considering the potential of pursuing further seeking further protections due to likelihood of Bats in the tree (with many members of the community reporting sightings) as Bats are environmentally protected species. We will try to share any more news on these points and more as and when we have it. Any further advice is welcomed.

We are planning a peaceful, family-friendly gathering for this weekend, 11th January, to bring the Wivenhoe community together and show our appreciation for the tree. We will be sharing more details soon. If anyone has capacity to support with organisation of this or has other ideas, please be in touch at oldoaktreewivenhoe@gmail.com or via Facebook.

We would also like to take a moment to reflect that this tree is one of many old oak trees, of an untold number, across the UK similarly at threat of being felled due to subsidence claims by insurers and in other circumstances. While of course every situation is unique, it is sad that especially smaller councils are being threatened with threat of being taken to court over huge financial sums as described in the council's statement when we know how important these trees are to our collective enjoyment and for that of nature and the environment at large. What value would we place on that of an old oak tree if we could convert everything we love about them to monetary terms? Our situation appears to be a microcosm of bigger challenges facing oak trees nationally. We are fortunate to live in a place where we have time and resources available to us to campaign in this manner, and we also live in an area where we enjoy good access to nature. In many other instances where trees are being lost, these privileges are not enjoyed by the affected communities. We believe more protections for trees, and particularly for older trees, are needed in planning and otherwise in the UK, while those protections that do exist (namely TPOs) need to be raised in the public awareness. We hope this campaign helps to support both aspects and show how important old oak trees are to British cultural memory.

For press/media inquiries, please contact the campaign team's new email address: oldoaktreewivenhoe@gmail.com