Felling of lime trees 'legally required'

Cornwall Council said it has investigated options to retain the trees while preventing further damage

The felling of three lime trees on a Falmouth street was "legally required", a council has said.

Cornwall Council said it had not previously been able to share details of the damage or explain why it was necessary to remove the lime trees from Trelawney Road due to court proceedings.

It said options to retain the trees while preventing further damage had been investigated but utilities under the footpath had made it unachievable.

But Debs Newman, spokesperson for the Stop the Chop campaign group, said the council had failed to provide evidence that the trees were causing "serious risk".

Six separate services, including streetlight power cables, water pipes and internet cables, run beneath the footpath between a boundary wall and the trees were tangled with the tree roots, the council said.

The surface of the road and the footway have also been disrupted by roots and kerbs have been removed because they were unsafe, it added.

It said the roots of the trees have caused, and were still causing, serious damage to infrastructure on nearby land and property.

Arrangements would be made for them to be removed safely and for four new trees to be planted, added the council.

'No alternative'

Portfolio holder for transport Dan Rogerson said the council understood how much the trees meant to the local community, after protests were held to save the trees.

"It's been frustrating for all of us that we couldn't share more details sooner, but we had to respect the legal process," he said.

"We value the role trees play in our towns and neighbourhoods - for wildlife, wellbeing, and climate."

Mr Rogerson said the council has planted more than 1.6 million trees through the Forest for Cornwall programme.

He added: "We always look for ways to protect and preserve trees wherever we can.

"But in this case, the damage to nearby property, public infrastructure, and essential services leaves us with no safe or viable alternative."

Request for evidence

Stop the Chop, a group which has campaigned to prevent the felling, said it was "astounded" to read the statement from Cornwall Council.

The group said the determination of the council to fell three protected trees without providing "independent, verifiable evidence that it's necessary, suggests all street trees in Cornwall could be at risk".

Stop the Chop spokesperson Debs Newman said: "According to the statement this damage has been known about since alleged investigations took place in 2021 and 2022, so why hasn't Cornwall Council provided evidence for this during the seven months that we've been asking for an explanation?

"What we all need to acknowledge is that if Cornwall Council gets away with felling these three, healthy, protected trees, without providing verifiable evidence for their claims as to why they need to be removed, then no street trees in Falmouth - across the whole of Cornwall, indeed across the entire country - are safe," she added.