Haringey Council: Park group chair resigns over tree-felling dispute

The leader of a park group has resigned amid a row about the cutting down of trees.

Chris Arnold, chair of the Friends of Stationers Park, said he was stepping down following anger over Haringey Council's decision to fell a large willow and 15 smaller trees last month.

He said he supported the cutting down of the willow as the north London council had found it was necessary due to "serious defects".

The decision received criticism online.

After the willow was felled, local campaign group Haringey Tree Protectors asked Jeff Duckett, emeritus professor of botany at Queen Mary University of London, to inspect the tree.

Following his inspection, Prof Duckett wrote in a report that he strongly disagreed with the reasons given for the felling, saying that "one of the best trees in the park has been felled on the flimsiest of grounds".

Haringey Tree Protectors criticised what it claimed were the council's "poor communications and transparency" around the felling.

However, Mr Arnold said he was there at the first inspection of the willow and it was "justifiably classified as 'dangerous to life'".

He added: "It sits opposite a primary school and the park area that is well used, so if it fell, we'd have serious casualties and possible deaths."

Commenting on the decision to fell the willow, Haringey Council's deputy leader Mike Hakata said the tree "was showing serious defects and urgent work was needed to prevent it collapsing", with "visible decay" and "large, vertical cracks" making it "unstable and hazardous".

He said the council could not put the public at risk and "had no option other than to act".

The council has also come under fire for chopping down 15 other trees in Stationers Park.

Mr Arnold said the friends group did not know that the 15 trees were going to be felled.

He added that the group was "miffed" but had "agreed a proposal to plant 20 new trees in the park, including apple trees".

The felling came shortly after the council, government and Lawn Tennis Association announced a joint investment of almost £447,000 to renovate tennis courts at five sites in the borough.

Mr Hakata said the 15 "poor quality" trees were "overhanging and causing damage to the existing court and would do the same when it was renovated".

However, he added there was "no connection between the removal of the willow tree and the tennis court refurbishment".

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