Today I was contacted by Peterborough Matters to say they had received a press release from PCC.

I contacted PCC press dept and asked for a copy. this is what they had to say...

Council deeply saddened by the action needed to see a mature oak felled

Peterborough City Council is saddened by the action it needs to take concerning a mature tree, as no-one likes to see any mature trees felled, especially a mature oak and the Council does not take such action lightly.

Our plan is to replace the tree in Bretton with six more standard trees in the locality, but not near properties. Across the city, we have ambitious plans to plant 1,000s of new trees, every year.

We know the planting of new trees cannot replace a much-loved mature tree and we accept the loss of this tree will have an impact on the landscape. However, doing nothing is not an option open to us. The council has a very clear policy, in line with national best practice and legislation, that where a tree we are responsible for is causing damage we have a legal duty to address this.

After we received the application to fell the tree and established it was Council-owned, we considered a range of different options, involving experts to consider how best to address the damage being caused by the tree – including keeping the tree and accepting the damage costs, pruning the tree or inserting root barriers under the ground, but these would either not solve the problem or, due to the scale of costs involved, would result in less to spend on trees across the whole of Peterborough.

It was agreed the only two options available were to fell the tree or for extensive ground works to be undertaken, and at a substantial cost.

The cost of this extensive ground work would equate to around one third of the council’s annual tree maintenance budget being used, resulting in 1,000s of other trees not being managed properly, a significant reduction or even scrapping of plans for the planting of new trees across Peterborough.

Also, extensive ground works to ‘save’ the tree could result in high greenhouse gas emissions because it probably would involve high volumes of excavation and material, the scale of which and the greenhouse gas emissions arising from this potentially being greater than the tree would ever absorb from the atmosphere.

This is absolutely not the problem of the current nearby householders to resolve themselves, planning guidance and building standards were followed at the time but no-one could predict the damage the trees would cause. We must now deal with the situation as we find it today - the tree is the responsibility of the council and is posing a danger to property.

Cllr Nigel Simons, cabinet member for waste, street scene and the environment, said: "The decision has been based on specialist advice and after a thorough decision-making process, the recommendation was, and continues to be, to remove the tree.

"The council made sure all appropriate applications were submitted, appropriate consultation took place - Bretton Parish Council was contacted for its views in May 2020, information was put on the council’s website during the consultation period which started in April 2021, and all local Members informed. No objections were received at the time.

"We have currently paused the felling work for safety reasons, but sadly we will have to resume shortly. We would welcome engagement from residents and the parish council about the siting of the new trees, which we will plant this coming winter. In addition, we would welcome suggestions from residents as to how we could make use of the oak timber, perhaps as a local bench in the area or as an art sculpture."

ENDS 

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It seems they just haven't listened! 

A couple of points , the comment about the remedial work causing the release of Greenhouse gasses is frankly ridiculous and is a attempt to fog the issue. How stupid do they think we are? How much carbon has this tree absorbed in the last 600 years and how much more will it absorb over the next 600 years?  They say this situation could not have been foreseen . Really ? Surely to foresee any problems  was the job of the planning department 20 years ago. It looks like they failed. And finally make a sculpture out of it's carcass ? Oh they have the money to do that then! A rotting reminder of what we lost?  This is another example of how they mis-spend OUR money! 

I have contacted Cllr Nigel Simons today and have put these facts to him he is going to arrange a meeting to discuss this. So long as the discussions are about saving the tree I will listen.

This issue shows how short sighted and belligerent this council is . they got it wrong and now they want us to lose a 600 year old tree to save them money. They got a huge environmental grant from the lottery and want to promote themselves as "The environmental capital of the fens" ? Where does chopping down trees come into this? They take the money, make a total cock up of planning, don't listen and bulldoze over our opinion! 

Oh and the bit about no objections at the time? That's because no-one knew about the proposed felling. When we did know there has been plenty of objections. 

For everyone's sake let's send a message to them that they cannot ignore!  

Richard.