Get bark! Nature lover Macca to axe protected trees at his £10m home
SIR Paul McCartney is to cut down a number of protected trees in the grounds of his £10million North London home.
The move comes three years after he had four other trees – an evergreen magnolia, a Chinese privet, a yew and a holm oak – felled at the property in St John’s Wood because they were blocking light.
Now the 80-year-old has been granted permission to give the chop to a Robinia suffering from ‘major deadwood’ and ‘decay’ on the trunk, and a purple plum tree that has ‘failed to leaf up’. Council chiefs gave him the go-ahead despite the tree being in a strict conservation area and under a Tree Preservation Order.
According to experts, a tree failing to leaf up is not a reason to cut it down.
Macca, who lives in the house with wife Nancy Shevell, is also to cut one holm oak ‘back to previous pruning points above the patio area, to allow for light into the rear of the property’, according to documents submitted to Westminster council. He is also to strip a lime tree, remove branches from a sycamore and top an elder tree.
In 2019, Sir Paul had a five-month tussle to prune his protected trees after also saying the back garden was too dark. He won permission despite the council initially complaining that there was insufficient detail in the application and that his team had submitted hand-drawn, child-like sketches.
Macca paid £40,000 for the threestorey Regency property in 1966 when he bought it from physician Desmond O’Neill. The Beatles legend, who has been vocal on the subject of climate change, has previously called for a halt in deforestation.
Eight years ago, McCartney provoked the ire of neighbours around his 600-acre Scottish estate over plans to cut down thousands of trees as part of a forestry maintenance programme.