The trees of St George's Churchyard are safe!

Leicester City Council's planning committee considered the application to cut down 21 mature trees in St George's Churchyard again tonight. They first considered the proposal back in January but postponed making a decision until a site visit could take place. 

Three people spoke against the proposal. The first was Melanie Wakley, speaking on behalf of Leicester Friends of the Earth. She pointed out that the bat survey had been conducted in November, when bats are known to be hibernating, so it was not sufficient. She also asked the planning committee to consider the impact on bees and other pollinating insects if 21 mature trees were removed from the city centre and she quoted a local beekeeper, who highlighted the wildlife value of mature lime trees. The next speaker was Steve Matijas, from the Serbian Orthodox church that owns the land. He stated that the council has a licence to maintain the grounds but this doesn't include removing trees. The church only want the trees nearest the church to be pruned back. The third speaker was Olga Suhomlinova, a resident of the flats overlooking the churchyard. She asked that the churchyard be retained as a quiet green space, rather than allowing local bars to use it for outdoor seating, which would create a lot of noise for local residents. 

Patrick Kitterick, the local councillor, then spoke against the proposal. He reminded the committee that trees take a long time to grow and it would take a generation to replace them. He also summarised the arguments of the other speakers and pointed out that the church, the local residents and the environmental movement all opposed this plan.

The planning committee discussed the application for a few minutes, raising their own concerns about the impact on biodiversity and air pollution if the trees were removed. The chair then recommended that they reject the application and the rest of the committee voted with him. 

So the trees of St George's Churchyard are safe!! We are very glad that the council have decided to reject the planning application. This is wonderful news to end the year.  

The Leicester Mercury reported this story in detail. 

‘Last chance’ to save St George’s trees

St George’s churchyard in autumn 

The City Council have announced that they will be re-considering the application to cut down 21 trees in St George’s churchyard, opposite Curve, at the next planning committee meeting on 12^th December. Campaigners have immediately expressed their dismay and are planning a ‘last chance’ Tree Festival in Orton Square on Sunday 9^th December, from 12 noon to 2 pm, to show the Council how much people care about the trees.

Anne Scott and Kelly Swann performing The Lorax

The Tree Festival will begin with a performance of The Lorax, the Dr Seuss story about a forest that is lost to economic greed. Two local teachers, Anne Scott and Kelly Swann first performed the story for the Everybody’s Reading Festival in September and have agreed to repeat it in Orton Square on Sunday as part of the campaign to protect the trees. The story is loved by children and adults alike. Leicester Friends of the Earth and CivicLeicester, who are organising the Tree Festival, hope that it will encourage more people to oppose the planning application.

The proposal for the churchyard was first considered in January but the planning committee deferred making a decision until a site visit could take place. At that meeting, some councillors expressed concerns about the removal of so many trees, especially those that are covered by protection orders. They decided that they needed more information about the state of the churchyard. Campaigners expected that a decision would be made one month later, as normally happens when a site visit is required. It is not clear why the Council have waited 11 months.

Hannah Wakley from Leicester Friends of the Earth said:

“We are disappointed that the Council's idea of Christmas cheer and solidarity with the environmentalists currently meeting in Poland on climate change, is to reinstate their plan to cut down 21 trees in St George's churchyard. The trees have done their job of soaking up carbon emissions for the past 11 months but seemingly no-one on the Council has used this lengthy time to consider any viable alternatives to their original ideas. But as the Lorax says, ‘Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.’ We will speak for the trees of St George’s churchyard and we hope the Council will listen. These much-loved trees should not be cut down just to please the local business owners.”

Ambrose Musiyiwa from CivicLeicester said:

“Trees are an important part of our city’s heritage. The cluster of trees in St George's Churchyard is particularly unique and important because of the work it does to combat air pollution in the city. The cluster needs to be preserved. Cutting down 21 of the trees, as the city council want to do, will be an act of vandalism that will have a negative effect on the health of the city.

"I hope people will continue opposing these plans.

"I hope they will continue writing to the planning committee and I hope they will come to the Tree Festival on 9 December and to the City Council's planning committee meeting on 12 December to oppose the plan."

Leicester sends a message to the climate talks

On Sunday 2nd December 2018, people concerned about climate change met in in Jubilee Square to form the number 12, to remind politicians that we have just 12 years left to take radical action on fossil fuels if we want to avoid climate catastrophes. An aerial photograph was taken from the Big Wheel and has been sent to negotiators going to the UN climate talks in Poland, as a message from Leicester calling for urgent action.

Red Leicester Choir attended the protest and sang songs with an environmental theme. They also led a mass sing of an adapted version of ‘Silent Night’, which calls for fracking to be banned. This song was streamed live on Leicester Friends of the Earth’s Facebook page.

One member of Red Leicester Choir, Christina Mottram, is travelling to Poland to attend the UN climate talks as a campaigner. She wants the negotiators to understand that people are very worried about the effects of climate change and they are asking governments to follow through on the commitments they made in Paris three years ago. In 2015, nearly every country in the world signed up to the Paris climate agreement, with the long-term goal of keeping temperature increases to 1.5 degrees. However, so far, countries’ commitments to reduce fossil fuel use have not been enough to meet this goal.

Christina said: “My children are now in their 30s, and ever since they were young I have wanted a better world for them to live in. It also makes you realise that some children are disadvantaged by the effects of climate change - especially poverty, migration, and the effects of global warming on local environments.”

Hannah Wakley from Leicester Friends of the Earth said:

“Over 100 people came to Jubilee Square today to send a message to talks in Poland. We know that we are running out of time to deal with this problem. If global temperatures increase by more than 1.5 degrees, millions of people will be affected by floods, drought, extreme heatwaves and poverty. It is still possible to avoid these catastrophes but governments must act now.”

Photo credit: Ambrose Musiyiwa

The Guardian covered the latest UN climate change report.
COP24’s website explains the aims of the conference.  

Can you spot the fracking difference?

Over the summer, the government is consulting about whether to change the law to reclassify fracking as ‘permitted development’. This is part of the UK planning law that allows people to carry out improvements on their home or property, such as putting up a garden shed, without having to apply to the local council for planning permission. The government is proposing that exploratory drilling for shale gas should also be considered as permitted development, which means that oil and gas companies would not need to apply for planning permission to construct an exploratory fracking well pad. Well pads can cover 1.5 hectares and result in noisy day-and-night drilling for up to 8 months. They require over 60 HGV journeys a day.

It seems that the government can’t tell the difference between a fracking rig and a garden shed. These proposals are an attack on our local democracy, as they would prevent councils from opposing fracking in their area. The government has realised that they are never going to persuade rural communities to accept fracking, so they are now trying to find some way for the fracking industry to start drilling without consulting local people.

An area of north-west Leicestershire has already been licensed for fracking. If the government succeeds in changing the law, oil and gas companies would be able to move in and start exploratory drilling without even applying for planning permission. Fracking has been banned in many countries, including Scotland and France, because people are concerned about the health risks and pollution. It is not fair that it should be forced on communities without them even being able to have a say.
Fracked gas will increase climate change at a time when we should be moving towards clean renewable energy. The Paris climate agreement acknowledges that we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground if we want to avoid dangerous climate change.

We asked people if they would sign our petition to Leicestershire County Council, asking them to speak out against the proposals to fast-track fracking. The shed and the fracking rig attracted a lot of attention and most people we spoke to were keen to sign the petition and prevent this unfair change to the law.

Evesham Road / Aylestone Road link will be debated

Our colleagues in the End of the Road campaign group succeeded in collecting over 1500 signatures in under a month in their petition (a fantastic achievement!) so there will be a full council debate about removing the road from the Leicester Local Plan on 4th October.

They are asking as many people as possible in as many different parts of the city as possible to lobby their councillors and ask them to speak against the road in the debate. They have sent a briefing to all the councillors, but they need to be encouraged to read and think about it by their own constituents. They are asking for 3 things: 1. That the council removes the road from the Leicester Local Plan 2. That the council also removes it from the map of possible future roads 3. That to show that they are committed to this, the council have a public consultation about what to do with the assets (land and buildings) it has retained with a view to building this road. Please take 5 minutes to read their notes and contact your councillors about this unnecessary road. 

Earthmovers award

We were very proud to be nominated as group of the year at Basecamp - Friends of the Earth's national gathering for activists. Hannah and Mel collected the certificate and were interviewed about our activities for the past year. 

St George's Festival Fringe: celebrating trees as the real heroes

We held a fringe festival at the City Council’s St George’s Day event in Orton Square, near Curve, to highlight the Council’s plans to cut down 21 mature trees in St George’s Churchyard. Following the successful Tree Festival in January organised with CivicLeicester, we returned to celebrate the trees as the real heroes of the city. 

Ambrose Musiyiwa, of CivicLeicester, said:

"The trees in St George's Churchyard are unique. They should be celebrated. They are the single, biggest cluster of trees in a city centre that has now been taken over by concrete, steel and glass. Trees clean our air, store carbon, provide a habitat for wildlife and make Leicester a healthier, happier place to live. We hope that our celebration will slay the dragon of habitat loss!"

Attendees were invited to wear something green. As part of the celebration, each of the threatened trees was dedicated to the people of a Leicester ward - there are 21 wards in Leicester and 21 trees. There was a 'thank you' book to sign, so that members of the public could express their appreciation for the trees. The campaigners also plan turned the railings of the churchyard into a gallery celebrating the trees and people brought pictures, poems and other artwork to add. 

Hannah Wakley, of Leicester Friends of the Earth, said:

“The planning committee first considered the proposal to cut down 21 trees back in January and they still haven’t made a decision. We don’t know what is causing the delay - perhaps they are hoping we will forget about it and stop objecting. But people are still paying attention and we are gathering to show the Council that we value the trees in our city and want to keep them." 

Stop breaking our hearts, Barclays!

For Valentine's Day, we held an action outside Barclays in Leicester, asking them to stop breaking our hearts and withdraw their money from fracking, as they promised. Passersby signed our Valentine's Day card, which we then presented to the branch manager.

Tree Festival

Leicester City Council are planning to cut down 21 mature trees in St George’s Churchyard, near Curve, as part of a planning application to open up the area. At the planning committee meeting on 10th January, Deputy City Mayor Adam Clarke said that the trees do not fit the Council’s ‘vision for the Cultural Quarter’. Campaigners have responded that the City Council need a new vision.

Civic Leicester and Leicester Friends of the Earth held a Tree Festival to show their vision of a culture that celebrates trees rather than cutting them down. They invited artists, poets, musicians, children and anyone who cares about trees to come and help create this vision. There was a programme of contributions that included Morris dancers, poetry readings, songs and a re-telling of 'The Lorax' by Dr. Seuss. Over 100 people attended, in spite of the cold and the rain, and the event was covered by BBC East Midlands Today and the Leicester Mercury.

The Council say they will replant two trees for every one that is lost. But two saplings are not the same as one mature tree that has taken decades to grow. And they only plan to replant eight trees in the churchyard – the rest will be scattered and so cannot provide the same sort of habitat for insects and birds. The lime trees that they want to cut down are pollinated by insects, particularly bees. This proposal represents an enormous loss of food for pollinators.

 

St George’s church is on the ‘Heritage At Risk Register’ and the Council say the trees are damaging the church. However, the only reference to damage in the planning documents is a leak caused by a blocked gutter. We have responded that gutters can be cleaned and that is not a reason for cutting down 21 trees. The event was promoted on Facebook. 

Press release: Call for better protection for city's trees

We have sent out the following press release about our response to the draft Tree Strategy. The decision on the application to cut down 21 trees in St George's Churchyard will be made next Wednesday and we encourage everyone to attend the meeting at 5:30 pm at City Hall on Charles Street. 

Leicester Friends of the Earth press release

Local campaigners call for better protection for city’s trees

Environmental campaigners have responded to the City Mayor’s request for comments on the new Tree Strategy by calling for better protection for the city’s trees.

Leicester Friends of the Earth have written to Peter Soulsby with their feedback. They have approved the commitment to replant trees that have to be removed but cautioned that the new strategy needs to focus more on the wildlife value of trees. They have also expressed their disappointment that the document only contains one brief mention of air pollution, when the role of green spaces in reducing air pollution is well understood.

Hannah Wakley said:

“We are glad that the City Council recognises the importance of trees in Leicester, both for wildlife and for people, but we want to see a much clearer commitment to protecting existing trees as the city develops.

Trees have been cut down in Victoria Park to expand the car park and now the Council want to remove 21 trees from St George’s Churchyard in the Cultural Quarter. Mature trees have enormous value for wildlife and they help to clean our air. They cannot be replaced by newly planted trees that will take 50 years to grow.

We are asking the City Council to sign up to the Woodland Trust’s Tree Charter, as the UK’s first Environment City, to demonstrate their commitment to protecting trees.”

The planning application for St George’s Churchyard will be considered by the planning committee on 10th January. It received 49 separate objections and a letter of objection signed by 20 local residents but the planning officer has still recommended it for approval.