Cambridge residents’ fears for maple tree overturned by tree protection order

A silver maple tree on St Matthew’s Street – misidentified for felling by county highways subcontractors – was under watch over the weekend as worried residents tried to find out why it had been given a death sentence.

The ordeal began on Friday when contractors turned up and fenced off the maple tree. The local community group, Friends of St Matthew’s Piece – which was set up in May 2020 to resist development in the local park – contacted Cambridge City Council when they saw the fencing go up.

“There seemed to be complete confusion within the council’s tree team,” said a member of the group. “Nobody appeared to have any record of work being planned for this tree.”

Friends of St Matthew’s Piece then set up a watch over the weekend until finally, at around midday on Monday, it was established that the wrong tree had been fenced off by Cambridge County Council subcontractors: it should have been another tree in poor condition at the far end of Gwydir Street. By early afternoon on Monday the subcontractors came back to take down the fencing.

“We were frightened for the tree on Friday as we couldn’t get a straight answer,” said Friends of Matthew’s Piece member Valerie Neal on Monday at the site, “but when Cllr Katie Thornburrow [executive councillor for planning policy and infrastructure] was contacted she couldn’t have been better, she’s been wonderful. We were naturally nervous, we were just concerned we were going to lose it.

“We didn’t suspect the city council of pulling a fast one, it’s just a question of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

“Katie says the city council is considering putting a tree protection order on the tree even though it’s on city council land and they don’t usually put a tree order on land they own, and I encourage them to do that for the local community.”

And that’s precisely what happened. On Tuesday Cllr Thornburrow told the Cambridge Independent: “I’m pleased the fencing was quickly removed, and that we’ve found that there was no plan to fell this important tree.

“I’d like to thank residents for alerting me so that we could sort things out, and I’m sorry that they went through this.

“To avoid any future concerns I’ve asked for an emergency Tree Preservation Order to be served on the tree involved. While it is not standard procedure to serve TPOs on council-owned trees it has happened where appropriate, and I support it.”