‘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."