I was advised by a resident on the 24th February this year that a very substantial tree with a tree preservation order on it located on Sheerlands Road along with a significant established ancient hedgerow and conifer hedge which was approximately 10 foot high and 60 foot long were removed and the following day a substantial 6 foot high fence was erected in their place. The new fence resulted in the removal of two gates which had been there for more than 30 years and were established rights of way.
The following day I notified Wokingham Borough Council of this but my concern is that the problem impacts on several departments within the Council from Highways to rights of way to planning , enforcement, land ownership, Trees and landscape and no doubt legal. In addition the size of the substantial tree meant it may also have required a felling licence which I understand can only be issued by the Forestry Commission.
Due to the many departments involved can I ask you as Leader of the Council would you please take responsibility for ensuring that all the relevant departments investigate this matter and report directly to you as it seems to fall into several Executive members portfolios which could only complicate investigation.
Minutes:
Question
I was advised by a resident on 24th February this year that a very substantial tree with a tree preservation order on it located on Sheerlands Road along with a significant established ancient hedgerow and conifer hedge which was approximately 10 foot high and 60 foot long were removed and the following day a substantial 6 foot high fence was erected in their place. The new fence resulted in the removal of two gates which had been there for more than 30 years and were established rights of way.
The following day I notified Wokingham Borough Council of this but my concern is that the problem impacts on several departments within the council from Highways to rights of way to planning , enforcement, land ownership, Trees and landscape and no doubt legal. In addition the size of the substantial tree meant it may also have required a felling licence which I understand can only be issued by the Forestry Commission.
Due to the many departments involved can I ask you as Leader of the Council would you please take responsibility for ensuring that all the relevant departments investigate this matter and report directly to you as it seems to fall into several Executive members portfolios which could only complicate investigation
Answer
Thank you for your question Councillor Cowan. As you correctly state this issue entails the work of a number of our teams. I can confirm that I am working closely with everyone involved and I will make sure you are kept up to date as things progress.
Before I get to the specific incident here I would like to make a few general comments about ignoring a Tree Preservation Order or a TPO and cutting down that tree can only be considered as an act of outright vandalism. There is a reason why a TPO is on a tree as it will be an exceptional specimen of that type of tree and needs to be preserved for all to see; the amenity value of it. Almost without exception the tree will be a mature sample which means it will be a big tree.
Too often people who do this simply laugh at the law as the fine will be derisory and all they need to do is to plant a sapling as a replacement which will be tiny in comparison to the original tree. As Leader I am already urging all the relevant sections involved to prosecute any future perpetrators to the maximum allowable by law.
Even then it will be totally unsatisfactory as it will take generations for any replacement planting to reach the same quality of the cut down tree. However, that is a deficiency in the law rather than the Council. Now let me turn to this specific incident.
The tree was covered by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and a Tree Replacement Notice is being prepared which will be served on the private landowner to secure an appropriate replacement. Unfortunately, the hedge that has been removed was not protected.
The fence that has been erected on the land is within the public highway. We have written to the person who erected the fence requesting its removal from highway land.
The gate allowed access to an open area beyond the property. The removal of the gate does not need permission from the Council. If the replacement of the gate with a fence restricts residents’ access generally, this is a private matter between these individuals as unfortunately there is no public right of way over this land.
A number of different sections of the Council have worked together to establish the above position and co-ordination of the issues rests within the Head of Development Management and Regulatory Services. Any action taken will include the Council’s own legal team. This will ensure that there is a coordinated approach to address all of the issues and you as local Member and the relevant Executive Members will be kept informed of progress.
Supplementary Question
You say that cutting down a Tree Preservation Order, (TPO) tree is an act of vandalism and I would agree with that. In my opinion, this case is an example of environmental vandalism on an epic scale, the like of which I have not seen or heard of in the 50 odd years that I have lived in Berkshire. It was a much loved tree that was 40ft high with a superb canopy, with a TPO and set against a backdrop of an established 14ft rural hedge that stretched for several hundred yards.
My reason for specifically asking you the question was to ensure that the involved departments all came together, but this has not really happened because on 5 May I got an email from an Officer which suggested that we might wish to secure replacement planting and that this would give us a more certain result with less expense to the public purse than a prosecution. In your last paragraph you say that I will be kept informed of progress, yet I reported this matter on 24 February and I have had some contact with one particular Officer, but nothing from anyone else that you refer to in your answer.
As I said the tree was well over 40ft and has been removed. The question would be:
· What actions are available to us now over and above what you suggest?
· What action is there to deal with removal of the fence? You say that nothing can be done.
· The pile of logs from the felled tree would indicate that an amount of tree to be removed which would require a Forestry Commission permitted licence which I did bring to the attention of the Council. Did the Council go to the Forestry Commission and suggest that this tree required a Forestry Commission license to fell it?
· You do say that the fence will be removed and replaced, but obviously nothing will be there to replace the two access gates which actually went from highway land to highway land. They do not involve private land.
· What action will be taken against the company that cut down the TPO tree? They do have an involvement in this.
· What message does this send out to residents and more importantly, when we are building 13,300 houses and it appears we do nothing when a TPO tree is cut down? I believe acting this way, when the public purse is more important than environmental vandalism, has set a precedent that shames us all.
Supplementary Answer
Thank you for the multiple supplementary questions. Clearly there are too many to answer here, so I will make the commitment that by the end of next week you will get a full written answer.