Park tree felling 'an act of arboreal terrorism'

BUT COUNCIL SAY THE TREE 'POSED A SAFETY RISK'

- By WILLIAM TELFORD

A "SAD stump" is all that is left of a 200-year-old tree which was a major feature of a Plymouth park until it was chopped down last week. A campaigner who battled to save the huge pine in Devonport Park, has called the tree's felling an "act of arboreal terrorism".

Alan Reading said how disappointed he was that Plymouth City Council had chopped down the tree, once considered so important that the Pavilion Cafe was built around it 15 years ago.

He said the current Labour administration's actions had turned out to be just as "deleterious" as those of the previous Conservative regime which oversaw the destruction of 110 trees in Armada Way in 2023. And he criticised the authority for allowing tree felling in other areas, such as Woolwell and Lambhay Hill. Mr Reading said: "They have shown themselves to be just as brutal and uncaring in removing not just the pine in Devonport Park, but many others around the city as well."