{"id":27113,"date":"2025-04-16T15:18:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T15:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/enfield-oak-tree-felled-by-toby-carvery-had-hundreds-of-years-to-live\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T15:18:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T15:18:25","slug":"enfield-oak-tree-felled-by-toby-carvery-had-hundreds-of-years-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/enfield-oak-tree-felled-by-toby-carvery-had-hundreds-of-years-to-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Enfield oak tree felled by Toby Carvery ‘had hundreds of years to live’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The tree, located on the edge of Whitewebbs Park and near a Toby Carvery, was discovered to have been chopped down on 3 April<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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An ancient oak felled in a north London park by Toby Carvery’s owners was healthy and could have lived “for another few hundred years”, the local council has said.<\/p>\n

Pub chain Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) said on Tuesday it was responsible for chopping down the 500-year-old tree on 3 April “to protect our employees and guests as well as the wider general public”.<\/p>\n

An Enfield Council planning document from March 2024 found that the pedunculate oak was a “fine specimen” with high ecological and landscape value and had a life expectancy of at least 50 years.<\/p>\n

But Ergin Erbil, leader of Enfield Council, said an inspection in December revealed the tree could have lived for several centuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He said: “Our experts surveyed this tree in December and they said it’s healthy and could live another few hundred years so I completely oppose the argument from the leaseholder that this posed a health and safety risk.”<\/p>\n

The council said on Tuesday it had reported the felling as criminal damage to the Met Police, which is understood to have closed its inquiry, deeming it a civil matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PaulPaul Whiteing<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A local took a picture of a cherry-picker operating at the tree<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The planning document, based on a November 2023 inspection, stated that the tree was in “moderate good” condition and recommended a “light reduction of the upper crown on [the] north side”.<\/p>\n

Initially, a source for M&B said on Tuesday that the company had approved the cutting down of the oak after being told the tree was dead<\/a>. The oak is located on the edge of Whitewebbs Park, close to a Toby Carvery.<\/p>\n

In an official statement hours later, M&B stated it had received advice from contractors, who said “the split and dead wood posed a serious health and safety risk”.<\/p>\n

It subsequently removed this statement in a further update, but maintained the company “took necessary measures to ensure any legal requirements were met”. <\/p>\n

The BBC has asked M&B for information about the contractor that cut down the tree. The company has not provided this and has also declined the BBC’s request for an interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Tree worth \u00a31m’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Dr Ed Pyne, senior conservation advisor for trees at the Woodland Trust, said of the cutting down of the oak: “I couldn’t quite believe it, to be honest. <\/p>\n

“I’ve been working with trees in various capacities now as an arborist, as an academic for close to 14 years and in all that time I don’t think I’ve seen a tree felling as shocking as this.”<\/p>\n

The tree, with a girth of 6m (20ft), was a nationally significant pedunculate oak listed on the Woodland Trust’s ancient tree inventory.<\/p>\n

News of the destruction of the oak comes just two days after a report from the charity Tree Council and researchers Forest Research<\/a> warned that trees were only indirectly protected, with some “significant legal gaps”.<\/p>\n

It recommends the development of a “robust and effective system” to ensure they are safeguarded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Russell<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Russell Miller is an ancient tree expert<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The Enfield oak was worth \u00a31m, according to tree valuer Russell Miller, who made his estimate using the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Miller said it was “much older and much more valuable” than the Sycamore Gap tree cut down in Northumberland in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He added: “This tree is designated… as an irreplaceable habitat because it’s got decay features and habitats within it that you cannot replace within hundreds of years.<\/p>\n

“In addition to the sorts of species that people are familiar with, like bats and owls that live in these trees, you’ve got thousands of species of invertebrate.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got lots of different niches for lots of different species inside the tree, and that’s why they’re so special.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A spokesperson for M&B said: “The tree was cut back after we were advised that it caused a serious health and safety risk.<\/p>\n

“Upon further inspection, our specialist arboriculture contractors made the assessment that the split and dead wood posed a serious health and safety risk and advised that the tree was unsafe and should be removed.<\/p>\n

“We are grateful to our expert contractors for warning us of this hazard so swiftly, allowing us to act before anyone was harmed.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC The tree, located on the edge of Whitewebbs Park and near a Toby Carvery, was discovered to have been chopped down on 3 April An ancient oak felled in a north London park by Toby Carvery’s owners was healthy and could have lived “for another few hundred years”, the local council has said. Pub […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[9585,9583,7727,796,568,6470,9584,2635,380],"class_list":["post-27113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","tag-carvery","tag-enfield","tag-felled","tag-hundreds","tag-live","tag-oak","tag-toby","tag-tree","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27115,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27113\/revisions\/27115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}