FOLLOWING recent meetings with campaigners and Falmouth Town Council, Cornwall Council has cancelled its plans to fell the three now-famous ‘Trelawney Trees’ during the week of November 17.

Following two very public protests earlier this year and another one last year, Cornwall Council was forced to stop felling the healthy lime trees on Trelawney Road in Falmouth. The legal reasons behind the 60-year-old trees having to come down were not revealed by the council at the time.

However, the authority later said roots were affecting utilities such as streetlight power cables, water pipes and internet cables. This was called into question by the area’s Labour member at Cornwall Council, Cllr Laurie Magowan, who said there was no proof that was the case.

What has become clear in the ensuing weeks is that the council agreed an out-of-court settlement with a third party. Stop the Chop! campaigners have suggested it could be as much as £100,000 which has been paid out – a figure which has not been denied by leading councillors. There is a confidentiality clause which means no-one at the council is allowed to talk about the details of the settlement, believed to be with a home owner who lives near the trees.

We are aware of a communication from a senior officer at Cornwall Council which verifies an agreement not to start felling in the week commencing November 17, with a further meeting to be agreed with members of the community.

A spokesperson for Stop the Chop! – the campaign group which has so far been successful in forcing the council not to fell the street trees – said: “This is great news in the short term at least. We’ve been asking why the trees need to be felled for over nine months and had to experience three public protests, two with the police threatening to arrest people, in order to show our concern about due process, but the council just carried on with its plans to fell. Finally we’ve had some engagement.”

Ahead of meetings with the council, Stop the Chop! asked the local authority: In order to restore public confidence in the competence of Cornwall Council and to avert any suspicion of undue practice or precedent, could you please provide verifiable evidence that justifies the felling of the three healthy and protected trees on Trelawney Road, Falmouth?

“This evidence hasn’t been provided,” say the campaigners. “Instead Cornwall Council has admitted that the foundation for the proposed fellings does not lie with uneven pavements or any damaged utility services, but with the out-of-court settlement agreed with the third party property owner.

“It seems that Cornwall Council does not hold any independent evidence of its own to justify the felling of these three healthy and protected trees, but is relying on information given by the other party involved in the private settlement … and that settlement is tied up with a confidentiality clause. This means that, as it stands, the public doesn’t know if any evidence actually exists, let alone if it’s proportionate.”

A spokesperson for Stop The Chop! added: “Falmouth Town Council feels that it was misled into believing that the trees were dangerous when they’re healthy and the public were told that roots were damaging utilities when they’re not. We wonder how many other confidential, out-of-court settlements have been made and how many street trees may have been felled as a result. This is a dangerous precedent.”

We have contacted Cornwall Council to ask why the date for the felling has been put on hold and why.