Joan fights to save tree even though it did £70k damage to her home!
ITS roots did £70,000 worth of damage to her home – including creating a huge crack down a wall of her extension.
So you might think the sprawling plane tree overlooking Dame Joan Bakewell’s house would be out of favour with the broadcaster.
But the 84- year- old is instead fiercely campaigning to save it after learning of council plans to cut it down.
Dame Joan has called the tree a ‘thing of considerable beauty’ and insists that chopping it down would destabilise nearby houses.
Her cause is supported by the mother of David and Ed Miliband, who is a neighbour in the upmarket area of Primrose Hill in North London where properties sell for millions of pounds
Marion Miliband, 83, said she would be ‘very saddened to see the tree go’, and wholeheartedly supports Dame Joan’s objections.
She added: ‘I have lived here for 25 years and I have never had any issues with my prop- erty. It must be very old, the trunk must be 4ft thick. It would be a hell of a job to cut it down – imagine the truck they would have to use to transport it away, it would be huge.’
In a strongly-worded letter to Camden Council, Dame Joan urged planners to block a request by a property management company to fell the tree. She said she has ‘kept the tree and its surroundings in equilibrium’ since 1992.
She wrote: ‘In 1990, the back of my house began to fall away: a huge crack had developed from top to bottom of the rear extension.
‘The work required to save it involved massive underpinning of the entire building.
‘ The total cost – some £70,000 (1991 prices) – was met by my insurers. They, my architect and my builder all agreed it had been caused by the tree.’
She added: ‘The solution is not to cut the tree down.
‘I was warned by builders and several tree experts that to cut the entire tree down would destabilise the roots, the water table and throw the entire behaviour of the surrounding land into doubt.
‘I was advised to have the tree heavily pruned every two years. This I have done since 1992 and we have kept the tree and its surroundings in equilibrium.’
There is a similar application by the same company proposing to fell another plane tree nearby.
It is alleged both trees have already caused ‘ damage to property’. But others have strongly criticised the proposal to cut the trees down. Neighbours have said they are ‘horrified’ by the idea.
Liselle Mei, whose ground floor flat has one of the trees in its garden, wrote to the council saying: ‘I am writing to strongly object to the removal of the rear tree.
‘Not only does this tree form an integral part of our ecosystem, providing clean air and a beautiful aspect, removal of the tree could cause much subsidence. I urge you to prevent the removal of this tree.’
Dame Joan added: ‘This is fine and flourishing, a thing of considerable beauty.
‘Each spring it comes into pale green leaf and thereafter casts sunlit shadows on surrounding gardens. In the autumn it carpets my garden with golden leaves. One day it will begin to die naturally, but that day is not yet.’
It comes after the council placed a preservation order on a plane tree in the garden of A-list actor couple Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in nearby Camden Town.
The council did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Fine and flourishing’