Thursday 29 Sept
 
Dear supporters,
 
Sorry for the delay in updating you, it’s been a while we know.

Our group, the Haringey Tree Protectors have been involved in lots of other campaigns such as this one https://www.change.org/p/help-save-stroud-green-plane-tree and this one  
https://www.change.org/p/demand-haringey-acts-now-on-fire-safety-in-townsend-yard-highgate and we are just starting to get involved in this one at St Anne’s hospital site where 50% of rare tree species are threatened (yes you heard that right!)  - https://chng.it/fgWkQpyL - please do support and sign all of these if you can!

This is a rather long post, sorry – but bear with us.
 
UPDATE – we're really depressed and angry to tell you it’s not good news for the beloved hairy Oak and up to a reported 9 others around the new bridge at Stanhope. (By the way, we still don’t know how many trees Haringey actually plan to chop because there’s no clear detail on it. Earlier this year we were promised a meeting with Haringey’s Tree Manager Alex Fraser to discuss exactly which trees the council say have to be felled – but we have heard nothing.)

So what happened?

After a number of pretty friendly meetings/chats this year between ourselves and Mike Hakata (Deputy leader of Haringey, Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Environment) we were led to believe that the possibility of a green design for the bridge was definitely on the cards. At one meeting on June 9th Mike was really buzzing with the idea and said he agreed that the biodiversity net gain on the current report from WSP design team was weak. We came out feeling so upbeat.

Shocked. Betrayed.
 
We did quite a lot of work to try and help the green vision along – we made a deputation (speech) at the committee meeting fighting for the trees, we carried out research on other green bridges examples (such as the Mile End bridge and Camden Highline) and showed the council images of these, we suggested planting trees and plants on the bridge, a permeable surface, bee boxes, questioned why the bridge had to be so high – (surely some of these trees could be retained and roots protected?); we sent Mike a green architect’s details, we had a few companies lined up to offer an alternative vision. It all felt like it was going in the right direction. To our astonishment councillors even started using our language – like ‘the hairy oak’ and ‘climate crisis.’ But, after emails asking for updates and a protracted silence, Mike Hakata flatly told us on August 25th it just wasn’t happening. This apparently was decided upon internally at a meeting with the Major Projects Team– a meeting which we would have liked to have been involved in to give an alternative view. It appears that the engineering team simply decided that they couldn’t replicate the bridges we had suggested for inspiration, (not to copy!) See again, how they used our own examples against us!

The whole process now feels very undemocratic, far from the vision Haringey like to promote, of a co-productive and forward thinking cabinet.
 
It seems Parks, Planning and Highways railroaded this in with nature as barely an after-thought, the bid waived through by the planning committee with not so much as a nod to the climate crisis, trees, insects, bats, birds, vegetation. This is a bridge on a nature reserve!! The money for the design so far, (around half a million pounds, yes you heard it right) has been spent and the council is just not willing to go back to the drawing board because of time, money, effort and well, just because it is probably just easier not to genuinely engage with us or other stakeholder groups such as the Friends of the Parkland Walk.
 
To add insult to injury we were also invited to a stakeholder meeting to ask for our input into the colour of the concrete and railings. Like us, the groups there was all dismayed and angry at the lack of genuine co-production and consultation all along this process.

Make no mistake, this is an ugly A-road concrete bridge which will carve through 140sq metres of our nature reserve, chopping up trees, vegetation, the green corridor for bats and other creatures. It’s already happened at the dismal Tollington Park bridge. No shallow planting is being suggested on the bridge – totally possible - no promises for other trees to be planted to mitigate in some small way.
 
There won’t be a hint of greenery on the bridge. The design feels outdated, clumsy, unimaginative and just so resolutely urban. We think the council need to centralise the needs of mature trees and green spaces in all its planning, highways and development projects. Concrete thinking needs to be genuinely ‘greened’ – and there are many folks in the council who need a fast track course in ecology.
 
Haringey is well and truly lagging behind its own green targets - we are STILL waiting for its Trees and Woods plan, biodiversity and other green plans. So we can’t even hold them to account to their own targets and regulations. Mike Hakata says, ‘As you know, the environment is one of the highest priorities for this administration and several projects are being developed including community gardens, parklets, pocket parks, the urban forest and many more…’ Ok, all this new planting, new stuff, is valid - but there is just no mention of protecting what we have already, the invaluable green giants of our streets and parks and nature reserves, that are doing such great work for u-our lungs. You know, the old trees that many of us just take for granted.
 
This slash and burn approach to nature for our needs, for concrete, is happening locally and globally in the climate crisis. But it could be so different. Here is where the council could have shown it’s ready to be a dynamic leader in green infrastructure – instead it’s letting regressive development thinking and a damaging (cheapest option) bridge plan destroy a really special lovely meeting point on the nature walk. We saw a baby thrush enjoying some time before its first flight on the hairy oak in the Spring. (see picture by Jo Syz)
 
But you know what? Do they really think we’re going to not keep the pressure up, to try to make our council think more about the trees we need - to do all we can to protect and preserve our mature trees?! We’re not giving up on Stanhope. Come on!! If you want to get more involved in action and outreach please email us at haringeytreeprotectors@gmail.com and see all our news and press at: linktr.ee/treeprotectors (website coming soon!)
 
Spread the word and keep emailing –

CEO of the council: andy.donald@haringey.gov.uk julie.davies@haringey.gov.uk  - parks and trees                       Mike.hakata@haringey.gov.uk Mike Hakata, deputy leader   Alex.fraser@haringey.gov.uk tree manager Simon.farrow@haringey.gov.uk – head of parks   sam.neal@haringey.gov.uk Sam Neal – consultant, planning team for Stanhope