Direct action.

The 120-year-old tree, a test case for an insurance system rigged against trees, is at the centre of two long term claims by insurers, Allianz and Aviva. The insurance industry habitually blames trees in damage to houses - at the moment, a tree only has to be shown it is implicated in damage to be felled. Many healthy trees have been felled in this way and very often, the damage to houses continues. We want to challenge the status quo and research ways both trees and houses can exist together.

‘Platanus’ is threatened again by Allianz who tried to pressure Haringey Council to fell on Thursday November 23, 2023. But an injunction was brought, and the hearing happens on a date from Dec 11th. We’re supporting the bid to keep the tree in the ground and hope you can contribute to our fund campaign here.

After the fellings, we carried out our own survey with Emeritus Professor Of Botany Jeff Duckett, a local botanist and tree expert, associate of the Natural History Museum and Queen Mary University of London. He described the fellings as a ‘tree massacre', completely out of control. Haringey council refuse repeatedly to accept our audit of trees lost or acknowledge that the work was badly managed and out of control.

As if this wasn’t enough, more trees were lost in 2023, 16 groups of trees including the ‘Hairy Oak’ tree, a beloved tree covered with Russian Vine on a lovely shady stop for summer walkers and nesting birds next to Stanhope Bridge in N6. It was felled, along with some others, in February 2023. We spent months doing outreach on the walk, meeting with deputy leader Mike Hakata and other councillors to try to stop the felling at Stanhope Road Bridge but to no avail, despite over 6,000 folks signing our petition. Eventually a brave person occupied the tree for a week until the council used strong-arm tactics and threw away her possessions. Sometimes when emails and talks fail, we have to take direct action. We wanted a green bridge but despite some assurances the council were very positive about our suggestions, they carried on with their concrete urban design - totally unfitting for a nature reserve. Haringey had already spend almost 500k on the design, and seemingly didn't want to go back to the drawing board. This should have been led by a conservation team, not Highways.

The Plane Tree on Oakfield Road, N4, became the centre of a national media storm in March 2023 when it was swooped on by 24-hour security guards, entombed in white tarp and covered in scaffolding for a week. This security operation cost Haringey council a whopping £92,000. Residents, locals and campaigners protected it round the clock for 7 months last year up to October 2022 - with two separate legal actions that ended up in county court and the High Court.

In 2021, during Lockdown, over 150+ trees were felled in our local nature reserve for ‘bridge inspection works.’ The local community was outraged and Haringey Tree Protectors was born. The Parkland Walk, a former railway line, now a unique nature corridor, was altered forever, its canopy thinned out and paths widened. Some of the trees chopped down were veteran, including a 100-year-old oak tree at the St James’ Lane entrance to the walk at Muswell Hill. The Highways officer in charge of the project, David Theakston, admitted that this was a ‘mistake,’ as contractors left on their own, misjudged the situation.

During the hottest week ever recorded in London, August 2022, McDonald’s manager Harry Rashid (Williamson Rd store on Green Lanes, N4) decided to cut down 11 mature 30-year-old lime trees and replace them with plastic grass. This appalled locals and prompted Chris Packham to show his disgust and support for our protest on a twitter message. There was no mention of tree removal in thee renovation planning application and McDonalds claim the trees were removed as their roots were interfering with the ‘drainage system.’ Plastic grass is very difficult to recycle and this material will at the end of its life, most likely end up in the Edmonton incinerator, impacting the air quality of one of the poorest areas in London. The area now regularly floods.

Joining with campaigners from Haringey Xr we helped protect two lime trees by Highgate resident Jane Hill’s grade-listed cottage. The Property developer, Executec Limited, used Mead Building Contractors, (MBC), were carrying on work in Townsend Yard, N6 with a complete disregard for residents who had peacefully lived there for decades. We saw first hand how little respect some firms show residents who are seeing their area, once a quiet zone for birds and trees, being decimated for expensive housing and a driving need for profit at all costs. The men from Mead and other security men were very abusive when dragging us away from trees; a number of mature trees were felled, including a lovely large chestnut by a very triumphant tree surgeon who seemed to enjoy our upset. For now Haringey Council has agreed to put TPOs (Tree Protection Orders) back on the trees.