The Forestry Commission has started an investigation into the controversial felling of an ancient oak near a Toby Carvery car park in northLondonamid new questions about ownership of the land on which it stood.
The investigation was announced by the junior environment minister Helene Hayman, who said thefelling of the 500-year-old treein Enfield earlier this month was “horrifying”.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Thursday, Lady Hayman said: “It has opened up a nerve in the country about how important it is that our really ancient trees are properly protected.”
Mitchells & Butlers Retail (MBR), which runs Toby Carvery, apologised for the upset caused by the felling and claimed it was necessary for safety reasons because the tree was dead or diseased.
The investigation is expected to challenge this assertion. The commission, which has new powers to sanction unauthorised felling, could impose fines and potentially launch a private prosecution over the incident.
Hayman said: “Toby Carvery said the tree needed to be felled because it was already dead and posed health and safety concerns. The Forestry Commission is now carrying out the investigation into exactly what happened and whether or not the tree was dead or not. Clearly, it looks like a very heavily pollarded tree at the moment. The question, is it dead or not, is one for us to consider further.”
Experts who have investigated the tree’s remains say it was alive when it was felled. Last year a veteran tree survey conducted by Tottenham Hotspur football club, which has financial links with MBR,described it as a “fine specimen”.
That survey, conducted by the Tree and Woodland Company, includes maps showing the tree was located on land owned by Enfield council, just outside land leased by the council to Toby Carvery.
Experts claim that if it is confirmed that MBR did not lease the land in question, the company could be prosecuted for criminal damage.
Sarah Dodd, the founder of Tree Law, a firm that specialises in legal disputes over trees, said: “If the tree was on someone else’s land, then the argument that Toby Carvery was acting as a responsible leaseholder and keeping users of its car park safe falls away. If it is on land outside their leasehold interest then it could be trespass and criminal damage. It could potentially reopen the issue with the Metropolitan police.
“The Forestry Commission also has powers to pursue criminal cases … It does pursue private criminal prosecutions when it is in the public interest to do so, and this is very easily going to tick that public interest box. But they would need to be rock solid on where the land boundaries lie.”
The incident was referred to the Met but the force concluded it was a civil dispute after establishing there was no tree preservation order in place.
Dodd said that even if MBR could prove it was leasing the land on which the tree stood, it could be liable for a civil claim of breaching the terms of the lease. Enfield council has alreadythreatened MBR with legal action.
The Forestry Commission investigation will also establish whether MBR had a felling licence to take down the tree. Under the commission’s rules, a licence is required to fell 5 cubic metres of wood every calendar quarter. In the absence of a licence, the commission can impose a fine.
Hayman was responding to questions from the Liberal Democrat peer Claire Tyler. She asked: “Doesn’t it show that current protections even for nationally significant trees are totally inadequate? Indeed they are described as a gaping void by the Woodland Trust. What specific steps is the government taking to ensure this outrage will never happen again? Does the minister agree that a national list of heritage trees that would have intrinsic protections akin to ancient monuments and listed buildings would be a very good thing to introduce?”
Hayman said the government was looking at recommendations from a report by theTree Council and Forest Researchon measures to improve protections for ancient, veteran and culturally important trees. She said: “We are going through those recommendations. We are aware that there are great concerns … Clearly, so many people were shocked by the felling of this tree.”
MBR declined to comment.