The sun is setting on this campaign. We are now just 10 shy of 3,000 signatures. I could not have imagined this petition would capture so many hearts when I jotted it late Saturday night. Thank you all.

Update - nearly out of time

The effort to save the beloved old King George Oak tree and other trees at risk of imminent felling is reaching a critical point. The trees are intended for felling from tomorrow. There's no change from Wivenhoe Town Council and we are yet to hear back from Aviva following raising concerns over greenwash and misleading environmental statements (which we've flagged to the CMA).

With view of the urgency of the situation, a number of the Wivenhoe community have now voiced their intention to take direct action and peacefully protest to protect it and the other trees at risk of felling.

The (recently improvised) Stop the Chop campaign team have nearly exhausted all possible avenues of seeking to change the minds of the local council who are felling the trees on behalf of Aviva as well as exploring the regulatory frameworks that exist for protecting trees.

It is no surprise then that many individuals from Wivenhoe's wider community say they now see no alternative than to take action to try to prevent felling through peaceful protest. It may be that this activity will be enough to trigger a re evaluation of the situation and to find alternative mitigations. Wishing those individuals well in their peaceful protest activities.

Community gathering event 

Somewhere in the region of 200 people attended a family friendly community gathering on Saturday, showing their support and appreciation of the tree. This was an amazing turnout, especially given the freezing temperatures. We shared stories (with a storytime reading of the ‘Oak Tree’ by Julia Donaldson), voiced frustrations and it was powerful standing underneath the trees and with the children playing in the playground, seeing what a huge contribution these trees make to the character of Wivenhoe. It was emotional and memorable. We thank all those who came.

The trees we believe to being felled have been adorned by the community in yellow ribbons, drawings, crafts, poems and quotes. They look beautiful.

See more from the event in reporting by the East Anglian Times and Colchester Gazette.

Uncertainty

At Saturday's gathering, it became apparent that not all residents in nearby homes have been contacted by the council, despite the council claiming to have been in touch with residents. In fact, some residents have said their own communications voicing concerns to the council were never responded to and roundly ignored.

Alarmingly, it also seems that more trees may be at risk of felling than we had realised previously, with WTC referring to "ashes" in the plural in communications with the community rather than the one ash we had thought was being felled. Ash dieback means that we are already losing significant numbers of ash trees in the UK, so to wilfully destroy a healthy ash tree (or two) is wasteful and troubling. One particularly special ash tree within the grounds of the children's playground is thought to possibly be at risk now also, and we have sought clarity from the council and raised a TPO request on it in case it is at risk also. 

We are unsure how the works will be completed, whether the children's playground will be closed and what access rights are being assumed for those trees along a private road. 

Residents nearby also voiced concerns that the works may cause risk of subsidence into the vicinity of the railway line and queried whether Network Rail have been notified of the works. We have spoken with Network Rail and raised our concerns on this with the council. 

It is disappointing that we are at this stage and still such fundamental questions need asking about what WTC have planned.

Update on alternatives 

Multiple experts have stated the very likely potential of alternative measures to addressing the subsidence issues while retaining the trees. It is expected that felling the trees may not be enough to address the subsidence issues and could even exacerbate them, with the unique context of the affected houses as backing onto a sheer drop onto a railway line with gravelly soils. There is also the knowledge that clay shrinkage subsidence that Aviva via surveyor Innovations have cited together with presence of tree roots to be the reason for the need for felling can be resolved by underpinning, though with an increasing number of cases of this due to climate change, insurers will seek to avoid the uplift in costs this represents over felling.

 We know the Financial Ombudsman may be able to intervene to ensure due process is done and will continue to be exploring this avenue seriously until felling works commence. We are still trying to convince WTC they stand a chance of standing against the threat of actions from Aviva should the trees not be felled by the 1st Feb.

Communications with the insurer

Ultimately the root of the felling works is the insurer. The community has directly experienced greenwash by Aviva in their written communications. There is considerable fear Aviva have misled the council in their communications and have seen intimidation to be evident in how Wivenhoe Town Council have relayed their experiences of dialogue with Aviva. 

It is worrying to think that if the trees being felled is insufficient to address subsidence issues in the terrace at large, perhaps underpinning and alternative mitigations will be taken anyway in the future. In which case, falling these trees now will have been a total waste and a complete travesty. 

We have been contacted by a number of other community groups around the country where Aviva is involved as insurer for a significant number of trees in the same situation of being felled for subsidence around the country, and where similarly alternatives seem to have been dismissed for unclear reasons. While at the same time Aviva are funding the Chelsea Garden Flower garden in partnership with the Wildlife Trusts and have made substantial financial contributions to the Woodland Trusts for tree planting and woodland creation. This hypocrisy is irksome and brings these valuable nature-supporting charities into disrepute. We have been in touch with these charities to make our concerns known and will be passing this new finding onto the CMA on Monday.

What do we stand to lose?

We have had estimation of the oak tree’s CAVAT value to be equivalent to £186k of economic value. To replace the tree’s biodiversity value, 60 trees would need to be planted. The tree has stored c. 9tonnes CO2e in its lifetime and could store far more in its long projected lifetime, as the tree is believed to be in the region of at least 120-150 years old and an ancient oak remaining from the old Wivenhoe Hall. 

And on top of this, the trees form an important part of our townscape and especially the environment around the children's playground. 

Further cause for concern 

The group have also found a troubling connection between the surveying company "Innovations" whose work the decision to fell the tree relies upon and Aviva. It appears the companies are under the same ownership and the surveying company may have an interest therefore in findings in Aviva’s favour. Innovations have a strangely low profile online and unusual level of churn on Companies House. Innovations appear to be writing to other residents along the terrace and those residents are concerned by this.

We believe we may be at the beginning of uncovering a bigger scandal of greenwash and unfair practices from all this, which build on the issues seen in Sheffield a few years ago.

To conclude 

The more work the community does to explore solutions and seek to save the old oak tree, the more troubling the situation appears to be both locally to us and nationally in terms of how trees are treated in similar situations.

The community now only ask for more time and for Aviva to hold off the financial and risk implications they say will fall to Wivenhoe Town Council if the tree is not felled by 1st February (the start of nesting season) to reexamine the decision making process to date. We ask WTC to refer this situation to the Financial Ombudsman and seek proper legal advice to ensure due process has been done. We ask Aviva and WTC to look to find alternatives to felling this important nature-supporting, carbon-storing and community asset.

Time is nearly running out. How many more updates there'll be from this petition is hard to say. Thank you for the continued support and let's hope that sense prevails in the nick of time.