We demand Haringey Council protect what trees remain on the Parkland Walk and further afield in Haringey's other green spaces. 

As Community Tree Protectors in Haringey we are appalled at the felling of trees up and down our beloved Parkland Walk in Haringey - a protected wildlife reserve on an old 5km railway line that runs from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill, home to rare species of flower and fauna as well as birds, owls and bats. We feel that contractors employed by Haringey have gone way outside their 5-metre bridge work stipulations and have allowed far more trees to be felled than their remit of 80 trees. Our count is more than double that, around 170 varied trees, and many of these have been lost outside the 5m area; at the Muswell Hill end of the walk - (St James Lane) a number of valuable oaks, some over 100 years old were mistakenly felled.

We believe a more sensitive and nuanced management approach should have been employed in assessing each tree (both inside and outside the 5m guideline) before allowing it to be felled.

Since 2008, Haringey have felled almost 3000 mature street trees. This figure does not include mature trees in gardens or other green spaces. This is unacceptable.

We ask Haringey to create a more robust Tree Protection Strategy, Biodiversity Action Plan and properly resourced Trees Department (woefully understaffed) in a Climate Emergency. In a Climate Crisis we need to protect our green spaces in Haringey and other boroughs in London as valuable carbon sinks. Since 2012, over the country councils/developers have been given free rein to fell mature and beautiful trees for the needs of buildings and other structures. This needs to be stopped.