We are expecting judgment in our case to be made public at 2pm tomorrow. Once we receive a copy of the judgment, we will share it and let you know the result.
The judgment is due to be handed down by emailing it to the parties and releasing it to the National Archives. To see the listing of when the judgement will be handed down please follow the link below and review 1.4 of the Planning Court Cause list:
A copy of the Judgement will be available using the email noted against our case on the above link, or by going to the National Archive.
Members of Wellingborough Walks Action Group plan to gather together at the Embankment Car Park tomorrow evening (Tuesday 21st May 2024) by 6.30pm, to consider the result. Please come and join us.
As you may be aware, Wellingborough Walks Action Group (WWAG) Ltd have spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the High Court in London for the hearing of our Judicial Review claim against North Northants Council (NNC) and Stanton Cross Developments (SCD).
We are pleased that after over a year of hard work we’ve been able to present our case to a High Court judge and our concerns about the plight of the Wellingborough Walks and the felling of protected trees has been heard.
The judge (Dan Kolinsky KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) heard argument from all parties, making clear that he would be alive to the practical implications of any decision he made. This is because his decision could have real world consequences not only for the Walks but also for other protected trees.
Of particular concern to us were SCD’s arguments that the tree protection regime and the planning regime should be considered separate. The consequence of this would be to largely leave decisions about whether the felling of trees was necessary in the hands of developers. In our opinion, the actions of SCD last year show the problems with such an approach. As our barrister, Will Upton KC, pointed out, SCD’s interpretation is dangerous to trees.
The result is now out of our hands, but we have done everything we can to make sure our community is heard on this matter. We should also not lose sight of what we have achieved so far: stopping the felling, prompting a re-think by NNC and SCD resulting in proposals to at least save more trees, allowing the public to now have a say on the discharge of important conditions and forcing the Council to change its approach to tree protection. It was made clear by NNC in the proceedings that it now agrees with us that the legal position it took in March of last year was wrong; that the trees should not have been felled without first discharging those planning conditions relating to tree protection.
A great deal of time, money and effort has been contributed by so many to help the people of our town be heard and what an incredible feat by our town. We thank everyone who supported us in whatever way on this journey, THANK YOU!! to the people of our town and beyond.
We also want to thank our legal team led by William Upton KC and Alice Goodenough of Goodenough Ring Solicitors for their considerable skill and expertise in guiding us all year to this point and through the court case. Thank you!!
Now we await the result, which is expected in a few weeks or months time.
It’s been a rather surreal experience with most of WWAG Committee never expecting we would ever find ourselves in the High Court presenting a case for our community. Hopefully this whole journey shows that we can all take action to make where we live a better place and it has brought people of our town together and reminded us that when we work together we can achieve amazing things.
Everyone that has supported this campaign, should indeed be walking a little taller after this, or wheeling a little faster, because of the way we have worked so positively to SAVE OUR TREES.
Thank you so much to us all.
But it doesn’t stop here!
What Happens Next – New Planning Applications
One of the things we have achieved is agreement from the Council that SCD’s applications to discharge important planning conditions relating to the trees should be open to the public to have their say on before a decision is made.
It is up to all of us now to comment on SCD’s plans for the remaining trees. Together we have already managed to convince Wellingborough Town Council to object to these applications, we now need to convince NNC to do the same.
We will publish our detailed objections in the coming weeks so watch this space.
The applications actually being considered at present by NNC are below, and links to them can be found on NNC’s planning portal here
NW/24/00231/CND – to discharge condition 34 relating to which trees on Route 2 and the Walks will be retained or removed.
NW/24/00229/CND – to discharge condition 32 relating to the protection of bats on Route 2 and the Walks.
NW/24/00230/CND – to discharge conditions 23 and 36 relating to landscaping proposals, i.e. new planting and its maintenance on the Walks and Route 2.
More information about these applications will be shared on the saveourtrees.co.uk website in the coming days/weeks. Please keep a look out for this.
Best wishes
Marion Turner-Hawes
Chairperson and Director
On behalf of Wellingborough Walks Action Group (WWAG) Ltd
NEW APPLICATIONS RE THE WALKS TREES – HAVE YOUR SAY!
“Stanton Cross Developments (SCD) have made 3 new applications to NNC to discharge 4 planning conditions (about bats and landscape features – re -conditions 23,32,34 and 36). These conditions are all relevant to route 2 and to the trees on the Walks.
It is not clear if the applications are open for public consultation. We have written to NNC to find out. We have also written asking for NNC to postpone the consultation and any decision until after the judicial review has concluded. However, as things stand any consultation closes on 8th May 2024.
Wellingborough Town Council is meeting at Swanspool House on Tuesday, 30 April 2024 at 7pm (yes the same date as the Judicial Review begins) to consider these applications. Please respond on the NNC planning portal with your comments. This is important in case the consultation is open to the public but also so that the Town Council can see what you are saying about the applications and can take your views into account.
Please also attend and speak at the Town Council meeting if you can. We (WWAG) will be providing our detailed thoughts on the applications after the judicial review hearing, but given the short time for responding and the upcoming Town Council meeting, please respond before 30 April with any comments. You can always respond again after you’ve had more time to consider the detail and after we have shared our thoughts.
To apply to speak at the WTC meeting please contact Joanne the deputy clerk at: deputyclerk@wellingboroughtowncouncil.gov.uk Or call Joanne on 01933 832823 before Monday 29th April at 5pm. Please go to WTC website for further details: https://wellingboroughtowncouncil.gov.uk/
To see the agenda for Tuesday’s WTC Planning Committee meeting, please click this link: https://wellingboroughtowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/138/2024/04/1.- Planning-Committee-Agenda-30-04-2024.pdf
WWAG colleagues intend to speak if we can make it back from the Court in time!
More information about how to use NNC’s planning portal, how to find the relevant planning applications, and how to make a comment will be provided as soon as possible, along with a bit of explanation of some of the elements visible on each application.
This might be the first and only chance we have to comment on Stanton Cross Development’s (SCDs) plans for the TPO trees on The Walks. Please take that chance to tell WTC and NNC what you think and help SAVE OUR TREES…
This is a call to action, please tell your friends, all the people who have contributed and all the people you know who want to save the trees, and encourage them to leave a comment on the NNC planning portal and/or speak at the Town Council’s planning meeting to show them the enormous strength of feeling in this town.
Background Info
The 4 planning conditions SCD is trying to discharge through these 3 applications are:
Thank you all for your support Best wishes Marion Marion Turner-Hawes Chairperson, Wellingborough Walks Action Group Ltd marioturner@hotmail.co.uk 01933 381467, mob 07584 350 308
Join us on our epic adventure to the High Court in London 30 April and 1 May 2024.
We said a while back that if it became possible to help people to get to High Court using a bus or minibus we would let you know. Because of the issues with driving all the way down we also decided a while ago that going by train seemed the best option and we passed out some information a few weeks ago about the most affordable routes.
We found that the most affordable route by train, traveling at ‘anytime’ on the day (ie – starting early in the morning), was to get an ‘Anytime day return’ from Bedford Station straight through to City Thameslink Station in London – just along the STRAND from the Royal Courts of Justice where the court hearing will happen.
We said that we would see if we could organise lifts over to Bedford Station from Wellingborough on both days to save on all the car journeys, and save people a bit of money. You will be pleased to hear that our friends at Glamis Hall have said we can use their 14 seater minibus, so we can indeed now offer up to 11 people per day a lift to Bedford from Wellingborough.
We plan to leave Wellingborough very early each morning and ask that people gather by 6.15am at the bus stop on Commercial Way (outside the front of the Museum/Theatre – behind the multi-story car park) where people usually get picked up for their bus holidays.
We aim to gather with others outside of the High Court by 9.00am, given this we will need to get to Bedford Station in time to catch the 7.30am train
So we ask that people arrive promptly, so we can get away as quickly as possible.
Coming back – the court case will conclude at roughly 4.30pm daily. Allowing time to make our way back to City Thameslink and to catch a train through to Bedford, we would expect the mini-bus will collect us each day from Bedford Station at about 7pm.
We are not proposing to charge for the minibus, but donations of any size will be gratefully appreciated but not required.
Reserving a Seat
If you would like to reserve one of these spaces please do one of the following asap to register your interest either:
(1) Email – info@saveourtrees.co.uk or
(2) Call Julie Robinson on 07989 640714 (after 2pm)
When you contact us please let us know how many seats you are reserving. Seat reservations will operate on a first come first serve basis and we will give precedence to people who registered on the website previously when allocating spaces.
We will be in touch with you asap to notify you that you have a space reserved.
Just to be clear, we are giving people a lift to the train station, but people will need to pay for their own train ticket to London.
If you have any queries please call me on 07584 350 308,
We look forward to hearing from you and for you joining us on our trip to London to SAVE OUR TREES!!
Best wishes
Marion
Marion Turner-Hawes Chairperson and Director Wellingborough Walks Action Group (WWAG)
As we fast approach the long awaited court hearing at the end of this month, WWAG Committee members want to bring local residents up to speed with the preparations for the Court hearing. Wellingborough Walks Action Group Ltd (WWAG) will be in the High Court on the 30th of April and the 1st of May 2024, as we look to present our judicial review claim against North Northants Council (NNC), following NNCs decision last year (Feb 2023) to allow the felling of 16 healthy protected trees from THE WALKS on London Road in Wellingborough.
As well as the loss of these protected trees from this historic avenue, which stretches from the centre of town to the river, 45 other protected lime trees on THE WALKS are still under threat as a result of plans by Stanton Cross Developments to expand the London Road roundabout as part of the development of Route 2, which will connect Stanton Cross to the A45 junction at Turnmills Lane. WWAG Directors, Marion Turner-Hawes and Lucy Hennessy, say preparations for the court case are well in hand and there is a great deal of hard working going on in the background to get everything ready for the hearing. Presently, final papers are being submitted and shared, and we expect to meet with our legal team next week to prepare for our days in court.
Marion and Lucy said, everybody has worked so hard to make this possible, and the Committee would like to say a massive THANK YOU to the whole community for the amazing support and contributions we have received to help us save the trees on this vital community asset, which is such an important part of the town’s heritage, as well as being a vital natural resource for our community. Over the period since the felling last year, we have raised nearly £70,000. People from our town and beyond have been absolutely amazing, so kind and so generous, and we are grateful beyond words.
We are now within touching distance of our overall £30,000 target for the court case, and we have just £700 still to raise. Marion and Lucy said the committee have been so overwhelmed and delighted with the response from our community, and people, businesses, local organisations, clubs, and groups have all contributed to help save the trees on THE WALKS. It has been an amazing community effort and really shows what can be achieved when we, the people of Wellingborough, put our hearts and minds together to safeguard what is important to us.
The judicial review court hearing will take a day and a half, with the process starting on Tuesday 30th April, just under two weeks from now. We don’t expect a result at the end of the hearing, as the judge will take some time to consider all the submissions and make their decision. It could be a month or more before we hear the final judgement.
To help us raise the final funds we have organised another fundraising Quiz Night on Friday 26th April starting at 7 pm. This will be held at St Andrews Church Hall, Berrymore, Kingsway, Wellingborough. We have a few tickets left so please come and join us and enjoy a great evening. Tickets cost £10 and hot jacket potato meal with lots of trimmings will be provided within this. To book your tickets please go to our website and please select the QUIZ NIGHT tab.
We always have a great night so come and join in. If you haven’t managed to come along before it will be great to see you this time.
We are also mindful that not many people will be able to make it to the court on the 30th April to witness the court hearing, so we have applied for online access to be made available, however we won’t know if this has been successful until sometime next week. If you could keep an eye on the group’s website, we will be putting more details on there or on our Facebook page.
The website address is www.saveourtrees.co.uk And you can also go on the website to buy tickets for the quiz night on the 26th April 2024.
Finally, we are also inviting members from the community to join us at the Trees on Sunday, the 28th April at 3pm, a few days before our court hearing, to mark this momentous occasion. Supporters are encouraged to join us at the embankment car park where we will update them about the present situation and also reconnect with the trees and our supporters before we go off to our court hearing a few days later. Please come and join us if you can, it will be fantastic to see you and to remind the community that we are still working hard to SAVE OUR TREES.
Finally, Marion and Lucy, wish to thank our wonderful legal team who are skilfully guiding us in this process, and of course, all the committee members who, in many ways have put their lives on hold to stand up for our community and save the trees. We honour and cherish your contribution.
For the people that are planning to travel down to London on the 30th April, there will be details on our website about some of the easiest ways to do that. Many of us will be travelling to Bedford station and going by train to central London from there. Keep an eye on the website for information about travelling to Bedford station, which we are hoping to be able to organise. If you have any questions please get in touch via the website or our Facebook page.
As you know we have been exploring how to get as many people as possible down to London on time on the above days to support and be visible for our campaign, and many of you put your name down to consider a group travel option, mainly by coach.
We learnt last week that the High Court proceedings are likely to begin at 10.30am, and given security checks and our need to meet with our solicitor team beforehand, we would need to be at the High Court no later than by 9.30am.
Given this, and the daily experience of one of our number who goes to London most days by car, it is clear that driving to London whether by coach or car, is not a realistic option unless we leave about 5am in the morning. This seems very unlikely and it also does not allow for any other problems that might appear on the motorway on that day.
Letting Train Take the Strain – So we have decided to let go the bus / coach / car idea and instead look at the best Train options, given that there are 3 stations that we could look to travel from, and there maybe a group travel discount opportunity. This would allow us to leave a bit later but obviously prices from Wellingborough can be a real problem.
Anyway, we have been doing some research and we have found the following….
That of the 3 local train leaving points (Wellingborough, Northampton and Bedford), Northampton is by far the cheapest option travelling during peak times.
The cost of a day return from Wellingborough (not advance) is £129 at peak times, the cost from Bedford is £53 return, and from Northampton its £34, (coming back after 20:30 (8.30pm), or £38 coming back at 19.23 (7.23pm) – that’s to Euston Station – we would have to get a bus or the underground to the High Court
Booking as a Group – we may also be able to get a better price by booking in advance, if we are quick and are able to book as a group. Some people may get a discount anyway if they have a railcard. So lots of potentials.
Getting to Northampton – Some of the group may well live in or near to Northampton anyway, for the rest of us we are looking to see if people could give others a lift and then share the parking cost at Northampton, I believe its about £11 or £12 per car. And we also have the option of the Wellibus helping us too.
Likely Group Booking Times – If travelling as part of the group, presently we would be looking to leave on 30th April 2024 catching the 7:30am train from Northampton Station to London Euston, and we would be coming back later that day on the 19:23 (7:23pm) train from London Euston to Northampton.
For those of us also going again on the 1st May, we think it would be the same process, and hopefully the same costs, or less. We will inquire. So now its all about numbers:
We need to hear from you – Please fill in the following form, if you have already filled in the registration form your details will be saved with your email address and Google login, please just add the new questions if you have previously filled this in:
Please Note – If you have your own railcard or other discount method its probably better if you book your own ticket, and if you still want to travel with the group or want a lift please let us know via the questions above.
Lifts to the station – We will do our best to put people in touch with each other to arrange these yourselves.
Please let us know your responses by Friday 15th March 2024 at the latest, but the sooner the better please so we can try and get the best prices. Please Note: the prices quoted above are NOT set in stone, they are changing all the time but hopefully, they are indicative.
Join in to mark the anniversary of the loss of the first tree, to share memories of our campaign and to show that we are still fighting for ‘our trees’. We will gather on The Walks on London Road at 4:00pm on Thursday 22nd February, exactly one year on from when the first tree was sneakily chopped down behind our backs.
We want to hear from the protestors that stood in front of the lorries or climbed trees. Share your memories, poetry, song, sadness and more. From 4:00-5:00 it’s all about the memories, then from 5:00 we will take a stand and show passing traffic during rush hour that we are still campaigning.
Join us to SAVE OUR TREES once more (hopefully) let’s make some noise for our trees! See you on Thursday from 4pm…
We are keen to bring you up to date with the legal case we brought against North Northants Council (NNC) to help save the remaining protected trees on ‘the Walks’ in Wellingborough. When Timothy Corner KC (sitting as a Deputy High Court judge) gave us permission to take our case to the High Court on 18th December 2023, this triggered a 35 day period for NNC and Stanton Cross Developments (SCD) to submit their detailed grounds of defence against the judicial review (JR) we brought in May 2023. This they both did by 22nd November 2023.
We are pleased to report, that the legal case does (for now at least) appear to be bearing fruit. NNC has stated that no further works to the trees will take place without NNC being satisfied that pre-commencement conditions relevant to the protected trees have been properly discharged. SCD has said that even though they don’t agree with our case, they will discharge certain conditions. Of course, quite what this means in practice and whether NNC and SCD will follow – through on this commitment, remains to be seen.
After receiving this detailed defence, we had 21 days to file any evidence in response. After discussing with our legal team, we did that on Tuesday 12th December 2023. Now we wait for our trial date in the High Court. In the meantime, we will continue to scrutinise NNC’s decision-making around the Trees and will keep going with the fundraising. We have now raised just over £15,000 of the £30,000 we need to get us to court, which is amazing!!. And the full total raised since we started in May is now more than £50,000!!!
Once again THANK YOU SO MUCH to the people of Wellingborough and beyond, you have all been absolutely fantastic!! We still have a way to go to get to the total and hopefully we will all keep working to enable this. We are still running the Crowdfunder page, https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-wellingborough-trees—court-fees-campaign and of course people can make direct donations at https://saveourtrees.co.uk/donate/
Fundraising Events – given we are likely to be in the High Court in February, we are hoping to fit in a couple of events before then. The first will be in early / mid –January, and the 2nd will be in very early February 2024. In addition we are relaunching our letter writing campaign to appeal to people, groups and businesses to help, I will be drafting a letter to share very soon. It would be great if you can share this far and wide.
Perhaps if you know people who would like to give a donation for Christmas (rather than a card or present) they might be up for donating to Save Our Trees instead. Every penny counts.
Talking of pennies, we have a lovely array of WWAG products that would make lovely stocking fillers. I will make a full list available tomorrow, or pop down to the Swansgate on Friday (22nd December) and see us with the Wellingborough Eco Group and Wellie Wombles in the shop opposite Specsavers.
Have a lovely Christmas Everyone. You are all stars to us!
Having received the great news of permission to take our Judicial Review case to be heard at the High Court, we need £30,000 to get there to SAVE OUR TREES. So, just like the poster, that’s our new target, and we hope that you will help us hit it!
Click on the QR Code on the poster to go directly to the new Crowdfund page or on one of the links below…
The High Court has reviewed our application for Judicial Review and on 18th October 2023 it granted us permission to take our case against the Council to a full hearing at the High Court in London! Not only that, the judge stated that the case is a ‘matter of public importance’. We couldn’t agree more!
As you can imagine we are delighted with this news and remain determined to have our day in court to put the details of this case before the Judge. Ultimately we hope this will save our treasured ‘Wellingborough Walks Trees’ and make Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) actually mean something across the country!
To get to court we need to raise £30,000, plus a further £10,000 in case we loose. Clearly in dealing with such big entities the odds are stacked against us, but we believe there is enough in our case to be successful and so does our legal team.
We must acknowledge all the amazing contributions that so many people have already made and say a massive THANK YOU to all those who have already contributed to our campaign. You and the people of our town and beyond have been truly inspiring, helping us raise more than £44,000 so far. However, the work to get us to this point including the process of attempting to reach a mutually agreed solutions, has meant that we have already spent more than £39,000 of this fund.
So we are asking you, your friends, family, local organisations and communities everywhere, to help us get over the line, raise this money and get this case heard in the High Court, for the benefit of communities everywhere.
The case we are bringing fundamentally is about ensuring that TPO trees remain properly protected. We are challenging the Council around their decision making in this matter and how they allowed, and could still allow, this to happen when valid TPOs are in place.
Given this, we hope that you and people across the country who hold the preservation of trees and our heritage dear (just like for the beautiful tree at Sycamore Gap), will feel inspired to support to this campaign and help us have our ‘day in court’ to SAVE OUR TREES!
We are delighted that the judge today has granted us permission to continue with our claim in the High Court to save Wellingborough Walks Trees.
The judge has said this is a ‘matter of public importance’. We couldn’t agree more. Given today’s news, we will continue our preparations for the upcoming trial, as well as our work to raise the funds we need to have our day in court to save the protected trees on Wellingborough Walks.
We have not seen the latest plans of Stanton Cross Developments LLP for London Road roundabout, but we remain ready to consider any proposal that will protect the trees.
Our next step is to continue to raise the funds we need, and to this end we will shortly be launching a new fundraising appeal to make sure we have the resources to take this case forward.
Finally, on behalf of Wellingborough Walks Action Group committee and members, we want to say a massive thank you to all the people from the community of Wellingborough (and beyond) that have come out and supported us to save the trees, demonstrating, and putting their hands in their pockets to make sure that the people of our town are always heard on the things that are important to us.
We still have a long way to go, but this is a marvelous milestone in our journey for justice for our community, and our heritage and environment which we cherish.
Marion Turner-Hawes Chairperson Lucianne Hennessy Director Wellingborough Walks Action Group Ltd
