One-woman protest saves ancient oak tree from being chopped down
A one-woman protest saved an ancient oak tree from being cut down as police were called to a village near Horsham.
Paula Weller and her husband Steve were horrified when they saw workmen start cutting branches off the ancient oak in Worthing Road, Dial Post.
Paula asked the men what they were doing when she saw one of them in the tree with a chainsaw. “I quickly ran round and said ‘You can’t cut that down’.”
And she stationed herself beneath the tree’s branches forcing them to stop.
Police and a Horsham District Council officer were called to the scene as tempers flared.
“One of the men was quite abusive and I just stood my ground,” said Paula.
Police eventually asked her to move, but the tree work
was halted as the council officer “said he would put an immediate emergency preservation order on the tree,” said Paula. She added: “I was just so upset. It’s a lovely 200-year-old tree.
“I think there should be a law that says you can’t cut a tree down like that unless you have planning permission.
“We really need to protect them. Some trees have preservation orders but a lot
of them haven’t. Developers come along and just cut them down. We have lost so many trees with storms, especially old oaks, over the years.”
A spokesperson for Sussex Police said: “Police were called shortly after 9am on Wednesday April 13 following reports of a disturbance outside an address in Worthing Road, Dial Post, in relation to the felling of a tree on private property. “An officer from the council attended and the issue was resolved with all parties involved being sent on their way.” A spokesperson for Horsham District Council confirmed that an emergency tree preservation order had been made. She said: “To be protected by a Tree Protection Order, the law requires that the tree must have public amenity value and be under threat. There are many trees in Horsham which have great amenity value but are not under threat of removal. They are not protected by a TPO as there is no legal basis to do so.”
But she said that once the council was made aware of the threat to the Dial Post tree, a preservation order was made.