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The chestnut tree vanishes – Battle against the axe is lost

IT had stood on the corner of a leafy Hampstead road for decades but it took just five hours to reduce the old horse chestnut tree to sawdust yesterday (Wednesday).
Despite a hard-fought battle by residents, including campaigner Peggy Jay, life president of the Heath and Hampstead Society, Town Hall bosses ordered workers to cut down the tree on the corner of Well Road and Christchurch Hill yesterday morning.
According to the Town Hall, the 100-foot tree had permanent fungal decay and would have posed a threat to public safety.
But for residents, who organised a 500-signature petition and a demonstration that brought traffic to a standstill earlier this year, officials were being too hasty in their decision.
Peggy Jay told the New Journal she understood the council’s concerns but said that trees were an important part of Hampstead’s history.
She said: “I suppose it was inevitable. We put up an enormous fight but in the end mould is mould and from the council’s point of view they have to be careful. It was a very lovely tree and it is a very sad story but the council were very considerate.”
Ms Jay, who once ran out of her Hampstead home clad only in her dressing gown to save trees in the gardens of Burgh House from the axe, added: “Trees are a vital part of urban scenery. We are very fortunate in Hampstead and we must fight to protect the ones we’ve got.”
Tory councillor Mike Greene who joined the campaign to save the tree, said the risk analysis obtained by residents “was just too marginal to allow the tree to remain in place”.
But, he added: “There seems to be a tendency by the council to cut a tree down at the first sight of trouble. The requirement should be to embark on a scientific study of the sort that residents in Well Road obtained.”
Pictured: Above: Before, the tree in all its glory pictured in April. Below: After, Cllr Mike Greene stands in front of the what is now a pile of sawdust.



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