Strim Burton: Director in tree pruning row
HIS character Edward Scissorhands was in demand from neighbours for his topiary skills.
But Tim Burton has become embroiled in a row over plans to prune and fell a number of trees in the garden of his £11million Edwardian mansion.
The American director, 62, has applied for permission to tamper with 15 trees protected by a Tree Preservation Order, which is made by a local planning authority to protect trees or woodlands in the ‘interests of amenity’.
Owners of protected trees must not carry out any of the prohibited activities, which include cutting down, topping or uprooting, without the written consent of the local authority. Burton, pictured, submitted plans to Camden Council, via the company Treecare Ltd to chop down a silver birch and a viburnum – which he claims are dead – at his north London home. But the Hampstead Conservation Area Advisory Committee is trying to block the plans. Permission has also been requested to remove dead wood and limbs, reduce height and to shape trees including a holm oak, weeping ash, weeping birch, cypress, bay and a laurel. The Batman director is expected to find out this month whether he gets the go ahead. Burton bought the five bedroom house, which has a ballroom and roof garden, from actor Tom Conti for £11million in 2018 after he split from actress Helena Bonham Carter. It was designed in 1903 by mathematician William Garnett, and its asymmetric layout was supposedly inspired by Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem Jabberwocky.