Tooting chainsaw massacre
FOR 140 years they stood proudly on this path. But a council decided this magnificent stretch of horse chestnut trees was a ‘threat’ and felled every one.
The 51 trees, in an area known as Chestnut Avenue on Tooting Common, south west London, were chopped down despite a petition with more than 6,500 names. Wandsworth Council blamed a disease called bleeding canker, a pest called the leaf miner moth and their age. But independent tree risk assessor Jeremy Barrell said: ‘The council said they were dying, which they were not. The council said they were unsafe, which they were not in any obvious way.’
The council claimed that Mr Barrell had not got close enough to the trees to see the problems.
A spokesman said many ‘were in a very poor and rotten condition’ and ‘would soon have begun posing a serious threat’. Sixty-four semi-mature trees will be planted to replace them.