Plymouth City Council leader calls for end to legal action over tree felling

Plymouth City Council's leader is calling for an end to legal action over the felling of more than 100 city centre trees in one night.

Former Conservative leader Richard Bingley had signed an order for trees in Armada Way to be cut down on 14 March.

An injunction halted the work on the £12.7m regeneration project, leaving just 16 trees standing.

Tudor Evans, the council's new leader, said it is now time to "move on".

In March, a High Court Judge in London kept the court order in place to halt the work, amid calls for an independent inquiry into the incident.

Efforts to remove the felled trees from Armada Way were put on hold in April because of concerns about nesting birds.

Labour Councillor Evans then scrapped the controversial scheme when Labour took over the council in May.

The council leader said the council was making an application to the High Court for it to consider bringing an end to the current proceedings.

He added that the council had written to the claimant, who is part of campaign group Save The Trees of Armada Way (STRAW), asking them to withdraw their legal action.

He said they would only do this subject to "certain conditions" which he added is "above and beyond what would be requested by the court" and would "result in further delays".

STRAW said it was more "disappointing point scoring" and "the laws protecting nesting birds is holding up the clear up. Not us."

It added: "As long as they really are saving the remaining trees then how is the Judicial Review holding them up?"

They said the proposals made by the council to end proceedings are "unsatisfactory and legally flawed".

Mr Evans said: "The city centre is looking awful and whilst we obviously want to move forward with the clean-up of the felled trees and stumps as soon as we can, we don't want to be held up any further once that is done.

"The legal action is based on a redundant decision. All it is doing is preventing the council from moving forward with a revised scheme."

"We must move on. I know that people will see this action as a positive step to sorting out Armada Way.

"We must not conflate what happened in the past with the future. We must rebuild and focus on how we can make our city centre; green, attractive and buzzing for the businesses."

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