New policy offers trees protection

COUNCIL NOT PREVIOUSLY SEEN AS THREAT

- By ALISON STEPHENSON Local Democracy Reporter

A NEW policy which protects council-owned trees valued by the public from being felled is being introduced in Plymouth. It comes after a learning review into the tree felling massacre of March 2023 when more than 100 specimens were chopped down in the middle of the night in Armada Way, as part of a regeneration project.

Cllr Maddi Bridgeman (Ind, Moor View) proposed the notice of motion to Monday's full council to introduce a fair system of assessing trees suitable for a tree preservation order.

The council accepted it with amendments put forward by Labour members. Currently trees on council land are not subject to TPOs because the authority is not seen to pose a threat to them. But recent events have put that in doubt namely Armada Way and a planning application for homes on a council owned play space in Wilmot Gardens in the Crownhill area, where mature trees were not protected.