How can the cutting down of trees can be possible when live tree protection orders are in place? That’s exactly what Stanton Cross developers, Vistry (Bovis Homes) have done and they are planning to do again. They briefed selected North Northamptonshire Councillors on the 9th February that their contractors would cut down 61 lime trees on The Walks, London Road, starting from Monday 20th February.
Horrified by the impending removal of these beautiful and essential trees, North Northamptonshire Councillor Valerie Anslow, who attended the briefing and is also a Wellingborough Town Councillor, started to raise the alarm with her colleagues. Within two days she had joined forces with fellow Town Councillor Marion Turner-Hawes to start the informal Wellingborough Walks Action Group and the SAVE OUR TREES campaign.
However, the clock was ticking fast with just a week to prevent this travesty from happening. A petition was created, and within days we called an urgent protest on Thursday 16th February where more than a 100 people from our town came out on a cold morning to campaign to ‘SAVE OUR TREES’. Weekday protests and Sunday vigils continued for the next two and a half weeks, with protestors blocking the contractors at every opportunity. The petition has now been signed by over 8,000 people, if you haven’t don it yet, sign here!
The contractors started packing up and removed their heavy machinery on Monday 6th March. Watch this moment when they went on the video above. Updates from the campaign can be found on our ‘Blog‘ plus more on our ‘About‘ section…