Thread by @paulpowlesland

So, I find myself 30ft in the air up a tree in Wellingborough- surrounded by police, security & tree surgeons- trying to prevent an illegal tree felling. How did I end up here? Here’s an outrageous story of nature destruction & collusion between authorities & private developer 🧵

‘Wellingborough Walks’ is an impressive Avenue of Lime Trees that is over 100 years old & is the pride of the town. A few weeks ago, local councillors were informed that 60 of the trees were to be felled, ostensibly to make a new roundabout & move a gas main

They swung into action, forming a local group to question & challenge the decision. They found that the trees have a Tree Preservation Order on them which makes it a criminal offence to damage or destroy them. But despite protests the developer Vistry started destroying the trees

Local people were arrested for trying to stop the felling & the local tree campaigners asked the council why they wouldn’t enforce the TPO & put a stop notice on the felling. They were told that an exemption applied under the TPO regs northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/people/fo…

At this point, I was instructed by the protesters to produce a pro bono advice on the position. Looking at all of the available documents, my clear conclusion was that the exemptions to the TPO regs didn’t apply & therefore felling the trees with TPO’s would be illegal

I’m sharing the advice I have with the permission of the protesters who instructed me. This was also shared with the council & the police. It was hoped that it would convince them to act to prevent the felling or at least to provide clarity as to why the advice was not correct

But no! So I travelled to Wellingborough to talk to the police on the ground. I explained my advice to them & they did not contradict it. However not only were the police unwilling to stop the illegal felling, they were threatening to arrest the protesters for aggravated trespass

This does not make sense as any trespass also has to be obstructing “lawful” activity to be aggravated. The activity the protesters were obstructing appeared to be unlawful. However, the police had conferred with the tree surgeons & contractors & were clearly on their side

The police came over & read their prepared script on aggravated trespass. I tried to reason with them that such an arrest could not be made given the unlawful nature of the tree felling, which they completely ignored & began physically removing people from the area

At this point I had a choice: to allow these beautiful trees to be illegally & unnecessarily felled, or to climb one of them to of them to prevent the illegality. Before I knew it, I was scrambling up the tree & seeing the perplexed expression of the police far below me

It’s absolutely freezing today, but I intend to remain up here to prevent the illegal felling of these trees. So far the work has stopped, which is good. If you wish to support, please send emails or call North Northants Council & ask them to use powers to issue a stop notice

Update: the police have now surrounded my tree with fencing (kindly provided by the developer they are colluding with today) & are covering it in police ‘crime scene’ tape so the tree is a crime scene. It would be funny if it wasn’t such an abuse of power & waste of resources

Update: I’m still in the tree & despite saying I would come down if the police moved away, they’ve now brought in *12* officers to surround the crime scene pen they’ve made & a fire engine. Such a ludicrous waste of resources to unlawfully arrest someone.

The felling crews went home (so the trees are safe for today); the head of the council offered a meeting tomorrow; & I was starting to get hypothermia, so I’ve now left the tree. Thanks for all your good wishes & the support & publicity you’ve given the campaign to save the trees

And thanks to @NorthantsPolice for cheering me up by giving me the hilariously ridiculous bail condition of “Not to climb any tree in Northamptonshire”. John Clare would be proud!