Hello all,

With longer days now upon us and the first buds appearing on many trees, spring is beginning to make itself felt. We wanted to share an update with you all on the latest with our campaign and the legal case.

Fundraising update

We have in the last couple of weeks reached the 75% mark on our CrowdJustice fundraiser, with over £15,000 raised so far. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign and helped us reach this stage, particularly including those who organised and contributed to another successful pop-up shop.

We are now working towards reaching our £20,000 stretch target.

A silent auction is currently taking place online, featuring a range of artworks and experiences kindly donated by supporters. Including experiences like a day's beach hut hire, a massage and a cooking class, something to keep like artworks and a signed Patti Smith book, or ways to enrich yourself with teaching in how to write a press release and making workshops. Please take a look and consider placing a bid, you might just win something special!

https://www.thesentinelgallery.co.uk/silent-auction-fundraiser.html

The auction closes tomorrow, Sunday 15th March, at 9pm.

We also have plans for further events and activities in the coming weeks, and we’ll share more information on those soon.

The legal case

As many of you will have hopefully already seen, the High Court recently granted permission for the Judicial Review to proceed.

The council was given 35 days to file its response and evidence addressing the grounds of the Judicial Review. Once those papers are received, there will then be 21 days for the claimant’s reply, after which the court is expected to list the case for a one-day hearing.

We are currently partway through the council’s response period and will share further updates as soon as there is news from the court.

Acute Oak Decline (AOD)

There has been no further development following the council’s recent statement suggesting that the oak tree may be affected by Acute Oak Decline and that this could justify lifting the injunction.

After an exchange of correspondence between solicitors, no application has yet been made to the court to vary the injunction. If any such application were made, then there would be opportunity to respond through the legal process.

We understand that a confirmed diagnosis of AOD has not yet been established, and we have not seen a detailed risk assessment setting out why immediate felling would be necessary either. 

We take the safety of residents and visitors extremely seriously and remain willing to work constructively with the council to ensure that any questions about the tree’s health are properly assessed by appropriate experts. We feel at this stage any action to fell the oak would be premature on the basis of information seen.

Aviva update

It may be interesting to know that Aviva, the insurer involved in the underlying subsidence claim affecting nearby properties, recently announced profits of £2.2 billion, an increase of around 25% on the previous year.

Against this backdrop, and given the scale of the dispute that has arisen between the community and the council, it is difficult to understand why alternative solutions such as underpinning the affected properties - which some engineers have recommended - have not yet been pursued in Wivenhoe.

One of the affected homeowners has also submitted a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and we hope that a long-term structural solution for the properties can ultimately be found.

We were interested to learn of the positive outcome that seems to be underway in another similar tree situation involving three oaks in West Sussex where AXA are exploring a root barrier and crown reduction as an alternative to felling. Hearing similar case stories from elsewhere gives us hope and reassurance that alternative mitigations can be found in these cases with the right motivation and support.

Closing thoughts

For now, wishing you all a good day in sunny weather, enjoy the daffodils while they are in flower. We hope later in Spring we will be able to see Old King George and the horse chestnut in leaf once again.

Thanks again for all the support, we will share more news when we have it!

Save Wivenhoe's Old King George 

ps you can follow us on Bluesky, Twitter/X, Instagram and Facebook if you want to hear more regular updates. Please do continue to share our story with anyone you think might be interested, every donation and petition sign helps us to grow awareness of our campaign.