It is a requirement when a TPO protected tree is removed that another should be planted in its place. AVBC issued a Tree Replacement Notice to the owners of Haytop Park requiring them to plant 121 trees to replace those illegally felled in March 2017. The TRN contained a detailed list of tree species and a location plan to show where they should be planted, drawn up by the council’s Tree Officer together with a Forestry Commission officer.
The owners of Haytop are appealing against that TRN and the appeal is to be considered by a Planning Inspector at a hearing soon. The thrust of that appeal is centred on the fact that the TRN requires that trees must be planted in the same locations as where the originals were felled. That will be a major inconvenience for HCPL because concrete bases and roads have been laid in many of the identified locations, so they will have to be removed. However, those engineering works and therefore the positioning of caravans/lodges would not have been possible without that illegal felling. If his appeal succeeds then, as our barrister said at the Public Inquiry, the Haytop owner will have profited by his own illegal activities and that is a fundamental injustice. If replanting is not done then we will be faced with a virtual housing estate in an open area on the side of the valley, with the possibility that more trees will be removed to allow for further development.
Members of the public and other third parties are able to make submissions in support of the TRN issued by AVBC and we would urge you to do so before the deadline of 25th January 2022. We have posted a model letter in the Documents section of the website, together with details of the TRN and the appellant’s appeal submission.
We would remind you that any submissions will be made available to AVBC and the appellant by the Planning Inspectorate.
Outrageous behaviour by owner of Haytop….and what a cheek, complaining about having to replant where you chopped the trees down, all because you were hell bent on developing the site come what may! You’ve made your bed, so no sympathy from anyone round here when you have to dig up all that ugly concrete and tarmac and replace it with trees!