Council chops down 400-year-old tree despite residents’ pleas

The felling of a 400-year-old oak tree in Merton has been slammed as “ecocide” by upset neighbours.

Tree surgeons started to cut down the beloved tree with chainsaws on Tuesday of last week.

Now just a stump remains of the tree in Central Road, Morden which backs on to the Hatfield Mead Estate.

Residents said they pleaded with workers to stop as there were concerns the tree was healthy and on public land.

But the council insisted the tree was diseased and its felling was approved. However residents wanted a second opinion on the view that the tree was decaying. They claim it is healthy and resident Rebecca Masiker and her husband Nick Riggio applied for the tree to be protected in 2020.

Rebecca, 49, said: “This is a great example of bureaucracy ending up in ecocide. The council wants our support for climate emergency action plans, but here is a case where a perfectly healthy 400-year-old tree which we were so lucky to have in our neighbourhood which has now come down.

“My husband and I got a tree protection order in 2020. We were under the impression that if that was revoked we would need to be notified about it. It is horrifying. We don’t know why the application to fell the tree was put through with so little consideration to us, it feels like our voices weren’t heard.

“It is now pretty much all the way down to the trunk. We were imploring the service that was cutting the tree to stop.”

She added that in the afternoon tree officers from the council came out but were unable to put a stop to the felling.

In a video seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, tree officers shout up to the tree surgeons that there is a dispute over whose land the tree stands on.

But the surgeons shout down that unless there was a written revocation of the approval they would not stop chopping down the tree.

Neighbour Pippa Maslin said: “In the time of climate breakdown, to cut something which is as mature as this which is absorbing so many emissions is absolutely nonsensical.”

Ms Maslin said there was a lack of communication with the council from the council which led to the tree’s demise.

She added: “It has been awful. They made swift progress. It was just branch after branch. It came down really quickly.”

Nick Riggio said the land was still listed as public, despite a homeowner successfully applying to fell the tree.

A spokesman for Merton council said: “Sadly, this tree was diseased and was at risk of falling on to garages. The planning application for the removal of the tree was approved on 16 June 2022.

“This process took into consideration the assessment carried out by the council’s tree officer that found the oak tree to have significant basal cavity, causing it to become brittle and unsafe. 

 “The applicant will plant a new semi-mature English Oak tree, transferring the original tree’s preservation order to the new tree.”

The homeowners’ gardeners have been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: What was left of the 400-year-old oak tree (Picture: Pippa Maslin)