Felling halted on Doncaster street as council vows to inspect remaining trees

Protests over the felling of 62 out of the 64 planned trees on Middlefield Road,in Bessacarr will halt following agreements the council will carry out further investigatory work on the remaining two trees.

Campaigners have said from the outset in January that other engineering solutions were possible to fix broken pavements on the road without felling trees.

The council has agreed to review the alternate engineering solutions document shared by campaigners and assess it against the evidence it shared in the meeting, and provide a formal response.

The council confirmed there will be no further tree work until further joint inspections of the two remaining trees have been conducted in the presence of the campaigners which will help confirm the extent of the footpath damage caused by the roots.

Campaigners have agreed they will withdraw their protest during the intervening period.

The council has recognised that the existing tree policy ‘needs to be strengthened’, and agreed it needs ‘further revision’.

It agreed that a temporary stop on all street tree felling in theborough – other than for emergency health and safety reasons – until the current tree policy is independently reviewed, before the end of February.

Both parties have committed to further discussions prior to Christmas.

Campaigner Kate Needham, said: “We are really pleased to finally sit down with Doncaster Council and have our concerns listened to.

“This was a really productive meeting and subject to written confirmation of what was agreed, we can now stand down our protest.

“We now hope that following the investigation on the roots of the trees that the council have agreed will take place, going forward, communities across our district can continue to enjoy our amazing street trees.”

Doncaster Council chief executive Damian Allen said there had been an ‘open and honest’ discussion with campaigners.

“We were able to address concerns regarding promised highways works, which we had consulted residents about,” he added.

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