Ancient Trees: Protections

Question

11:39:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government, following the recent felling of an oak tree in Enfield, what assessment they have made of the adequacy of protections in place to prevent the felling of ancient trees of national significance.

My Lords, ancient and veteran trees are recognised as irreplaceable habitats and protected in national planning policies. Local authorities may place tree preservation orders—TPOs—that prevent trees from being felled or significantly modified. We understand that there was no TPO on the Enfield oak tree prior to its felling. One is now in place on what remains of the tree. We are considering the recommendations of a recent report that focused on improving the protection and stewardship of important trees.

My Lords, how can a much-loved 500 year-old oak tree at Whitewebbs Park in Enfield, which I know well, be felled at one stroke—as the Times newspaper put it—leading to a public outcry, when it comes less than two years after the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree? Does this not show that current legal protections, even for nationally significant trees, are totally inadequate? The Woodland Trust has described them as a “gaping void”. What specific steps are the Government taking to ensure that this outrage will never happen again? Does the Minister agree with me that a national list of heritage trees that would have intrinsic protection, akin to ancient monuments and listed buildings, would be a very good thing to introduce?

Clearly, many people were shocked by the felling of this tree, coming on the back of what happened to the tree at Sycamore Gap. To someone who, like the noble Lord opposite, lives in Cumbria, it was really horrifying. It has opened up a nerve in the country about how important it is that our ancient trees are properly protected. At the moment, the Government are looking at the recommendations of a report from the Tree Council and Forest Research regarding measures that are needed to improve protections for ancient, veteran and culturally important trees. We are not in a position to outline what we are actually going to do, because we are in the process of going through those recommendations, but we are aware that there are great concerns.

My Lords, this was an unfortunate incident, but it seems there was no malintent: no one cut down a protected tree to expand a car park or a building. If there is a villain, I suspect it is the usual overreaction to health and safety concerns: someone reported that the tree was a risk and someone in the pub chain decided that they had better deal with it; then the contractor cut off excessive branches, leaving this bare stump. It is a catalogue of genuine mistakes and I note the profuse apology of the chief executive of the pub chain. However, if the tree was on the Woodland Trust’s ancient tree inventory as a nationally significant pedunculate oak, why did Enfield Council not have a tree preservation order on it beforehand and why were the pub owners not informed of its significance? I was going to ask the noble Baroness what steps the Government will now take to strengthen the enforcement of existing provisions for ancient trees of national significance. I and the whole House look forward to getting the report from Defra as soon as possible on new steps to protect trees like this in the future.

The noble Lord makes some good points. The issue here is that Toby Carvery said that the tree needed to be felled because it was already dead and posed health and safety concerns. The matter was then referred to the police by Enfield Council, which was clearly concerned by what had happened, and to the Forestry Commission. The Metropolitan Police closed its inquiry because it said it was a civil matter; because of that, the Forestry Commission is now carrying out the investigation into exactly what happened and whether the tree was dead or not. It looks like a very heavily pollarded tree at the moment; the question of whether it is dead is for us to consider further.

My Lords, like the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, I know this tree; it is quite near to where I live. As was pointed out by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, there appears to have been no criminality or even any serious criminal intent in this case, because there was a failure to understand the significance of this tree. So in what way can those significances be better publicised and made clear to people? Perhaps more importantly, given that trees are sometimes wrongly felled as part of an intention to clear a site—for a development, for example, when the sanctions are often regarded as a cost of doing business—are the sanctions against people who wilfully damage trees that are or should be protected strong enough to act as a deterrent?

My noble friend makes some extremely good points. The new National Planning Policy Framework recognises ancient and veteran trees as irreplaceable habitats and makes it clear that any planning decisions should not result in their deterioration or loss, so it is good that we now have that in the NPPF. As I mentioned earlier, we are considering the report by the Tree Council in order to look at how we can improve protections for such trees, and I am sure that sanctions will be part of what we are considering. Ancient trees—because you cannot just plant another tree and recreate that habitat—need special attention.

My Lords, as the Minister has just said, ancient trees not only lock up massive amounts of carbon for decades or even centuries but provide an amazing, biodiverse habitat for wildlife. While we encourage planting new trees, it takes a long time for them to lock up anything like the same amount of carbon. So what are the Government doing to encourage landowners to identify massive ancient trees and perhaps apply for tree preservation orders or something of that nature?

Defra has just been mapping trees in this country, so that we have a better understanding of how many trees we have, where they are and what types of trees they are, so we are doing quite a lot of work to understand what trees we have. Also, as I am sure the noble Baroness and other noble Lords are aware, when applying for what was BPS and is now ELMS, the mapping of particularly important large trees on farmland is currently carried out. When we look at the Tree Council report, we need to consider how we can use that information to make sure that the most important trees are protected and that landowners are encouraged to do so.

My Lords, I hope the noble Baroness takes this question in the spirit in which it is intended. Given that the tree has now been felled, what is the point of a tree preservation order on the stump? Is it to act as a disincentive to future fellings or to send a strong signal to make more people aware that they should be more careful when felling older trees?

That is a really good question. I do not know the reason why the council has put a TPO on it, but common sense suggests that the tree may not actually be dead. You could say that it has been extremely heavily pollarded, as opposed to chopped down at the base, as was the case with the Sycamore Gap tree. On that basis, it could potentially sprout again. It will not exactly recover quickly to its former glory, but that is potentially the reason that the TPO has been put on it.

My Lords, can the Minister tell the House whether TPOs are easy to find online through digital mapping? That would remove the excuse for cutting down a tree with a TPO; it would also give people in the local community the opportunity to identify trees that perhaps do not have TPOs but they feel should, as part of the local plan.

The noble Lord asks an interesting question, to which I do not actually know the answer. I shall look into it and get back to him.

My Lords, our ancient trees are an extremely important part of our national psyche and extremely important for our biodiversity. I welcome the Minister’s comments that the Government are looking at what more they can do to protect our ancient trees, but can I press her further? When do the Government feel they might bring forward legislation in this area? Would the Planning and Infrastructure Bill be such an opportunity?

The noble Lord made a number of points there, on planning infra- structure, nature, biodiversity and a wider tree strategy. Defra and MHCLG have been talking extensively about environment and planning, and doing a lot of work on that ahead of any legislation in that area. Regarding nature and biodiversity, we are having a number of conversations in Defra on our priority legislation going forward. Clearly, these areas will be part of those discussions.