Case against council over cut down trees fails

An attempt to take a council to court over cutting down more than 100 trees at night has failed.

Campaigner Ali White asked the High Court for the green light to resume a contempt claim against Plymouth City Council after it cut down 110 trees in Armada Way as part of a multimillion-pound regeneration scheme in the area.

Mr Justice Sheldon's judgement dismissed Ms White’s contempt bid, saying the council's actions in March 2023 were designed to avoid protest, rather than legal action.

Plymouth City Council's leader Tudor Evans said he was pleased to see the end of any court cases and the council would now focus on delivering a new version of the regeneration scheme for Armada Way.

Lawyers for Ms White, who applied for the council to be committed for contempt in November 2023, argued the local authority did not give protesters sufficient time to challenge the fellings in Armada Way, Plymouth.

The judge said there was "no real purpose to be served" by a contempt hearing "solely for the purpose of seeking to hold the council to account for something which made no material difference".

Plymouth City Council was under Conservative control when the trees were cut down with an executive decision signed by then leader Richard Bingley.

Labour took control of the council in May 2023 and came up with a new £30m scheme for Armada Way.

A previous, separate application by Ms White to the High Court for a judicial review into the felling was dismissed in March.

Evans said the authority was "finally able to put the matter of the Armada Way felling of the trees to rest".

He said legal challenges had been "frustrating" and each case had "cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds".

Evans said: "Since the start of this process, we have been clear that it was never in the city’s best interests to argue the rights and wrongs of a decision that was subsequently scrapped and we are pleased that all the live legal action has now concluded."

The council will now hold an "independent learning review" into what happened - as agreed with the High Court in March.

Evans said the council would now "put all our efforts and focus on sorting out Armada Way" and promised work would "pick up pace over the next few months".

Ms White said she was "extremely disappointed" with the decision but added information had been made available as a result of the legal process that may otherwise have remained private.

"We have done all we can to try and hold Plymouth City Council to account over what was, let's not forget, not only an appalling act of environmental vandalism, but a dark moment for democracy," she said.

"We have no faith that the independent learning review will result in genuine learning but at least because of the legal challenges a lot more information will be available to whoever conducts it."

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