Delight at Cambridge City Council stay of execution for Alexandra Gardens trees

The two London plane trees in Alexandra Gardens facing the chop from Cambridge City Council have been spared – and delighted residents thanked activists for their swift action on a July morning last year when a council works team arrived with chainsaws.

The row of 10 London plane trees in the park off Victoria Road is 115 years old. Controversy arose when insurers insisted that the city council should prune two of the trees because of the alleged threat of subsidence to one house in the area. The council agreed to cut 70 per cent of the trees’ canopy after the insurers threatened to bill the council for £130,000 to underpin the houses.

The council has now rescinded the sentence, and instead ruled that root barriers be put in place to prevent the trees’ roots growing in the direction of the properties concerned.

Residents were informed that chainsaws would not be used via an email which read: “The waiver is signed, the contract is signed, and we are all ready to go ahead with the root barrier alternative.”

Delighted residents gathered around the trees to celebrate. The campaigners paid tribute to Extinction Rebellion (XR) Cambridge activists who were on site and prevented the council team from doing their work to the healthy trees on the morning of July 27, 2021.

Peter Sparks, a member of the Alexandra Gardens Tree Group (AGTG), said: “Extinction Rebellion deserve praise because if they had not sat under the trees that morning they would not be there now. It meant the woodcutters were not able to do their job – it was marvellous.”

Another resident in the vicinity, Liz Fenton, said: “That morning I couldn’t bear to stay at home, so I walked round to the park because I had to see what they’d done, and when I turned the corner the trees were intact, one was covered in Extinction Rebellion banners... it was a wonderful moment.”

Jenny Langley, who participated in the 2021 stand-off with her partner Derek as part of XR Cambridge, said of the news: “Joy of joys! I am utterly delighted to hear that our beloved plane trees in Alexandra Gardens are saved for future generations to enjoy. They faced a severe brutal pruning which might have killed them.

“The shade provided by these trees is always welcome in the summer, and particularly important during the extreme heat warning from the Met Office. I am proud to be part of the group of local residents and Extinction Rebellion activists that saved these trees. We all came together and had breakfast sitting under the trees to stop the wielding of the chainsaws and kept up a 24/7 watch.

“I would like to thank Cambridge City Council for reversing their decision to mutilate the magnificent 115-year old plane trees and to follow the logic of their declaration of a climate and ecological emergency in 2019.”

Although this battle seems to have been won, another campaigner voiced concerns.

She said: “Until 1976 there was no such thing as a subsidence clause. It was introduced by an insurance company following the drought in 1976. The cracked ground had caused the problem and the insurance companies realised they were being deluged so they introduced the subsidence clause – and we’re in the same situation now as then.

“The ground under Cambridge is chalk, which dries and cracks in extreme heat. The insurers will use any excuse to avoid pay-outs, which is why so many trees have been unnecessarily cut down in this country. This threat hasn’t gone away, and it could get worse.”

Cllr Alex Collis, executive councillor for open spaces, food justice and community development, said: “The council’s open spaces team has worked extremely hard to make sure we get the positive outcome for the trees that we all wanted to see.

“The decision to pollard the trees was the first I took as a new executive councillor. It was not one I took lightly, and it was not a decision I was happy about taking, but paying underpinning costs would have meant our tree planting programme across the city would have taken a serious financial hit. Throughout I have been pushing for us to explore alternative options, such as root barriers, and I’m so pleased that we’ve now managed to get the go ahead.

“A big thank you has to go to our tree officers, whose knowledge and commitment to preserving the city’s canopy cover has made all the difference.”

Cllr Hannah Copley (Abbey, Green Party) said: “I’m delighted these trees will be saved after the local community demonstrated their immense value, and that, as I proposed in my objection last year, a root barrier will be put in, instead of cropping their canopy.

“We face ever-rising extreme heat here in Cambridge with runaway climate breakdown, and the best available technology to combat extreme heat remains plentiful mature trees with wide canopies within our streets.”