Review into Plymouth tree felling could be months away
It will focus on lessons to be learned from the events last March
It could be months before an independent review is carried out into the controversial tree felling in Plymouth’s Armada Way.
The review, which will focus on lessons to be learned from the events in March last year, can’t take place until legal proceedings have concluded.
The High Court has yet to consider whether it will allow campaign group STRAW (Save the Trees of Armada Way) to appeal against the dismissal of a case into claims the council acting unlawfully.
More than 100 trees were chopped down in the middle of the night as part of a regeneration scheme by the Conservative administration, but it caused outrage and the project was later scrapped when Labour took control of the council in the May 2023 elections.
Three months later the council ordered an independent review into what happened.
The case brought by STRAW was thrown out earlier this year, but the court said a number of questions needed to be answered and asked for a commitment from the city council to undertake an independent learning review (ILR).
The council’s cabinet was told that two outstanding strands remain to the legal proceedings; one being the appeal and the second a contempt of court allegation.
Agreeing the terms of reference for the ILR, which will have a chairperson and a panel of three legal, environment/regeneration and planning experts, cabinet members heard that it could be months before work begins.
The plan, which has been supported by the public, is estimated to cost £37 million.