Updated: 10 out of the 14 trees were cut down yesterday (Friday 28th January 2022). We are awaiting an update from Haringey and AXA and will post further information here as soon as we know what's happening to the remaining trees. 

Original Petition

A group of fourteen oak and hornbeam trees in Coldfall Wood, an ancient woodland and nature reserve, are threatened with felling on Monday 1st March 2021. Haringey Council have agreed to cut them down following a request from AXA insurers, who maintain that the trees are causing subsidence to a nearby property.

The property was built in the 1950s and was extended right up to the tree line about ten years ago without any tree survey being carried out. Two two-hundred year-old oaks have already been felled without consultation with the local community. This doesn't appear to have made any difference to the subsidence problem.

Furthermore, the trees are slated to be felled right at the start of the nesting season, and birds are already beginning their breeding activity.

We are asking Haringey to stop the felling until an independent review can be carried out. We need to explore the circumstances around the granting of planning permission, the nature of the property's geography and the adequacy of the property's foundations. In similar circumstances, trees in Queen's Wood were saved when the insurer found another solution to the problem. We believe that these issues should be explored before insurers are simply allowed to demand the destruction of ancient woodland.