'Stay of execution' for Stroud Green tree defended by campaigners

Final court ruling due to be made in March as Haringey Council seeks to chop down tree said to be damaging people’s homes, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

The campaigners have been occupying the tree to halt any attempts to chop it down

Campaigners are celebrating after winning a “stay of execution” for a 120-year-old tree under threat from council chainsaws.

Haringey Tree Protectors have spent months battling Haringey Council over its plans to chop down the plane tree in Oakfield Road, Stroud Green, which insurance firms Allianz and Aviva claim is causing damage to homes.

The council says that if the tree is not removed it could face a bill for damages of more than £400,000, which would have a “significant impact” on its ability to deliver key services for residents. But the campaigners, who have been guarding the tree since February last year, want to see the houses properly underpinned to protect them from subsidence so the tree can be saved.

The council took the campaigners to court to gain possession of the highway surrounding the tree and sought an injunction to stop anyone impeding its removal. Last month, a judge at Clerkenwell County Court granted a possession order but deferred making a decision on the injunction until the first available date after 1st March. According to the council, the Financial Ombudsman is due to make a decision on a complaint made by homeowners by the end of February.

Haringey Tree Protectors say in a statement that the court ruling is “an achievement for all tree campaigners”, adding: “It is worth standing up, making it as difficult as possible for those acting improperly or unreasonably, and publicising the important tree cases we care about – as well as getting them noted in courts of law.

“Ultimately, we need our council to live up to its leader Peray Ahmet’s pledge to make Haringey a ‘fairer, greener borough’.”

The campaign group claims there are more than 200 trees in Haringey under threat from home insurers and that subsidence claims rose by 200% last year on a national level as a result of “droughts in the climate crisis”. It believes “relatively cheap” methods of watering trees could help reduce some of the problems being caused by climate change.

Mike Hakata, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for climate action, environment and transport, said: “We have been fighting to save this tree since the original claim was made in 2015. But the technical opinion we have received indicates that the tree is likely to be contributing to the subsidence issues. Having considered this matter in the light of expert opinion, the council considers that felling the tree for circa £15,000 would be the correct thing to do in the circumstances.

“However, if the tree remains in place, the council may face a legal claim which could mean that the council is ordered to pay damages of more than £400,000, which the council would need to meet, rather than an insurance company or any other organisation. Such a large sum of money would have a significant impact on delivering key frontline service areas our residents rely on.”

A petition launched by Haringey Tree Protectors to save the tree has so far been signed by more than 1,500 people and is available here.

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