North Northamptonshire Council was wrong, high court judge rules

Campaigners have won their judicial review as a judge finds the unitary authority was wrong to let protected trees in Wellingborough be pulled down by developers

By Sarah Ward

The trees were felled illegally a judge has ruled.

North Northamptonshire Council should not have let the saws anywhere near the protected lime trees in Wellingborough, a judge has ruled.

16 trees were cut down and four people arrested last winter after the developer building the town’s Stanton Cross development ploughed ahead with plans despite not having the legal right to.

The council, which is the planning authority, had allowed the felling to go ahead, despite assertions by the public that the developer was acting unlawfully by doing so as the trees had a protection order. They were pulled down as part of preparatory works for a new access road to the Stanton Cross estate.

Yesterday high court judge Dan Kolinsky ruled that the council had acted incorrectly.

The legal action had been brought by the Wellingborough Walks Action Group, which raised £70,000 from local people to challenge through the court whether the council had acted within the law.

More than 30 trees still remain standing and the developer has submitted a new application last month to fell them. It will now be for NNC to decide which of the remaining trees can be saved.

Campaigner Marion Turner Hawes, who spearheaded the efforts to hold the council to account said yesterday after the ruling that the council’s ‘baseless justifications’ given at the time had been exposed:

She said:

“This is an incredible victory for the people of our town. We have taken on the Council and the developer and shown them that our heritage, our environment, and our communities, are at the heart of who we are and what is important to us, and that as a community we are determined that our natural heritage needs to be cherished and protected.

“With the judgement today we feel vindicated in our determination and approach to save the protected trees on the Walks and in our assertion that by felling 16 of the protected trees last year, without the of benefit an exception applying at the time, the developer (Stanton Cross Developments LLP) acted unlawfully and North Northants Council stood back and allowed it to happen.”