Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Enfield Council has indicated it may take legal action over the felling of a 500-year old oak tree which sat on land it leased to a Toby Carvery restaurant.
The Woodland Trust described the incident as “devastating” and said the tree was “more ecologically significant than the Sycamore Gap tree” next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.
Enfield Council initially reported the felling of the tree to the Met Police as criminal damage, but the force reportedly found no evidence of criminality.
Toby Carvery’s parent company Mitchells and Butlers said specialists had advised them to “cut back” the supposedly-dead ancient tree as it posed “a potential health and safety risk”.
Ecology expert Russell Miller told The Times the tree could have lived for another century and deemed the cutting “the worst example I’ve ever seen of inappropriate tree surgery”.
A new Tree Council report calls for important British trees, such as the Sycamore Gap tree, to be better protected.
The good news is that woodland in the UK is increasing in area. In 2024, 20,660 new hectares of woodland were created, a jump from 13,000 the previous year.
