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Council prosecutes individual for unlawful felling of public tree

By Molly Stubbs
The tree after its felling

A county council has successfully prosecuted a resident who pleaded guilty to criminal damage after unlawfully felling a council-owned tree near his property.

The prosecution by Monmouthshire County Council resulted in the Wyesham resident being ordered to pay £1,520.52 in compensation.

The tree, which had recently undergone a safety assessment and canopy raising by the Council’s Tree Team to improve access, was removed without permission. The unauthorised work was spotted by council staff, leading to an investigation and successful prosecution.

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Benefits

Trees play a significant role in Monmouthshire’s urban environment, providing benefits to all residents and visitors including playing a crucial part in:

  • Combating climate change by absorbing carbon and reducing flood risk
  • Supporting Wildlife providing space for nature to thrive
  • Improving public health, including boosting immune systems
  • Enhancing the local economy, increasing property values and improving visitor experience in town centres

Despite these benefits, Monmouthshire has one of the lowest levels of urban tree cover in Wales. As such, the council is committed to protecting and retaining trees to ensure they continue to serve the whole community.

Monmouthshire County Council receives around 500 tree-related enquiries annually. Each one is investigated in line with the Council’s Tree Policy, which outlines how trees are managed and when pruning or removal may be necessary for safety, infrastructure protection, or access to public rights of way.

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Pruning

Residents have limited rights to prune overhanging branches from council-owned trees; however, any action beyond this must follow proper procedures, and residents must also check if a tree has a protection order in place.

There are occasions when individuals take matters into their own hands, causing deliberate harm to trees. Where the Council can identify those responsible, it affirms it "will not hesitate to take legal action—as demonstrated in this case."

Monmouthshire County Council urges all residents to respect the shared value of public trees. They are not just part of our landscape, they are part of our community’s health, wellbeing, and future.

For more information on how the Council manages trees and what to do if you have concerns, visit their site here.

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33 comments

Evan Aled Bayton

It should have been £20,000 pounds…

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Father Christmad

Conmunity service, planting trees. Alongside a fine... By the look of the stump, this chap must have known what he was doing!! Felling a tree of that size is a professional job !! He would have therefore known full well that he was going to face a fine and deemed it worth the money to get more light to his garden !! Where were his neighbours while this was going on ? Were they all complicit ? I feel we're not getting the full story here.

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Simon

-and plant replacement trees

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David Davies

Why not name the criminal involved. Fine is far too low: a tree felling company would charge that, possibly more, so the fine should be at least double, plus expenses, plus planting trees as a community service.

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Fanny Hill

Stupid fella !

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Zarah Daniel

I see what you did there. ;-)

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Geofff

Seems odd? He'd have paid the council £1500 to kill his annoyance. Fitting community service should have been for him to plant a row of protected leylandii trees along his fenceline & to report his blood pressure for next 40 years.

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Father Christmad

Suburban & urban trees alike are essentially priceless..!! Therefore, no fine can serve as an adiquate pr fittung punishment (but fine him all the same of course) Some kind of course to help him understand why he' being admonished would seem appropriate ? + I love the idea posted above saying thwy shpuld plant a wall of trees surrounding his property !! What a SELFISH MORONIC FOOL.. And.. where were his NEIGHBOURS while this was taking place ? Where I come from, if Mr Jones from number 16 was outside felling a tree . We'd all have somthing to say about it !!

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Clifford hoy

In elstree the local council cut down a row trees and bushes about 6 to 8 trees because they blocked sun light dont know why they stopped there they should have keeped going and cut all the trees down in the whole area make it a total eye soar

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Jamie

Seems pretty cheep to get rid of the tree you didn't want infrint of your house. Sounds like he knew he would only get a fine and decided it was worth it?

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Rat West

A £1500 fine is not good enough. . I see zero deterrent for others who think they can do the same. This should be an imprisonable offence with a minimum of two years, to show the importance of urban trees.

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Zarah Daniel

Prison just costs the general public money in increased taxation. It isn't the answer to all crimes. He should have been given a much heavier fine, the replacement of the tree should have been guaranteed at his cost separately as part of his penalty, and he should have been given around 10,000 hours of community service - if his hands are idle enough to find time to cut down trees he doesn't own (and I bet he is the kind of person who, if a working class kid was caught vandalising council property he'd be yelling "lock 'em up and throw away the key) then he's got time to serve his community. With every council struggling under funding cuts it would be nice for them to have some free help litter picking in the parks to clean them up for the kids.... I'm sure you lot could think of a few jobs to keep him busy. :-)

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Paul Ainsworth

Its the kids chucking litter in the first place, bring your kids up to use the bins, the litter wouldn't need picking up! Much like smokers dumping fag ends everywhere, its a disgrace, snd a definition of not caring about the place you live in, but still complain about the lack of cleanliness of the area.

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Terry Smythe

When a person goes to prison,all their benefits stop.thegovt keep it all,even state pension!!!...so don't believe that the it costs the ' general public ' anything!!!

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In reply to Terry Smythe

Zarah Daniel

It costs thousands to keep a person in prison. Look it up - all of the information is widely available and it comes from a wide range of different sources but they all say the same thing, sticking people in prison costs us - the taxpayers - a fortune but doesn't help society in most cases. Of course we don't want murderers and paedophiles roaming the streets but seriously - a guy who cut down a tree??? Should people's taxes go up so we can lock up more tree-loppers??? Or should we just close down more public services so we can afford to jail this menace to society?????

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In reply to Zarah Daniel

Flow

That's why HE should be charged for his time in jail. Being a homeowner, he has assets.

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Michael

And rapist, paedophile get away with community penalties. I get it, it's a beautiful tree, but prison. Go and eat your granola bar.

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Eddie

Maybe the stocks and all throw rotten apples of a tree at him 😂 Seriously no one should have the right to fell any tree without consent

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Flow

Absolutely agree, imprisonment & at his own expense, not ours! £1500 fine is way too low & does not value mature trees highly enough. £15000 fine would be better, but if his house & income are high value, then maybe £50k would be sufficiently painful for him, plus a week in the stocks...

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Fanny Hill

Yes, I agree, the defendant deserved a stronger punishment. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I’m stumped as to why you’ve received so many down ticks for your comment.

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Bob Bobeet

Indeed, the tree that didn't want to die and the tree killer who killed it mercilessly.

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hdavies15

.......which makes me wonder how those corporate landgrabbers dumping wind turbines all over the countryside get away with chopping down hundreds of thousands of trees, now cumulatively well into the millions. Must have some big political pull on their side.

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David J

How do you know how many trees are cut down for windfarms? Answer: you don't. If you have detailed information on this point, do let us know where it came from ( I won't hold my breath). In case you hadn't noticed, wind farms are sighted on the tops of hills, which are bare of trees and other vegetation, due to the ravages of sheep over centuries. You are spouting hysterical nonsense.

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Alun

Aggressive response bro. Chill.

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In reply to Alun

Moron Spotter

Aggressive? Not all, he was merely stating the bleedin' obvious to those that need it.

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Spruce

Put a freedom of information access request in with the council, you should get your answer. In my area every tree felled another is replanted in its place

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hdavies15

Not so in Sir Gar for starters. Go pay a visit to the Brechfa Forest site just north and east of Alltwalis for starters. They shredded huge swathes of timber to make room for the concrete bases and trees don't grow on those bases or on the miles of access roads that got built or widened to enable the original development. Much the same pattern has cropped up elsewhere in rural Wales. Even where there were no trees the developers ripped up the soil cover which led immediately to more frequent run offs and flooding on lower flood plains. That should induce some hysteria in you if you weren't so luvved up on turbines.

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In reply to hdavies15

David J

I regularly walk in Brechfa, living as I do a short bus ride away. I see no evidence of "swathes of timber" being cut to make the access roads; no stumps, no brash. What I do see however, is acres of land around the turbines which are perfect for replanting, and the concrete bases take up only a few square metres of ground for each turbine. You give yourself away when you refer to road widening; the roads were mostly existing forest roads widened for the turbine installations. "Miles of access roads"? take a look at the map; the site isn't that big. And blaming windfarms for flooding would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic - do you have anything to say about sheep devastation of the uplands in Cymru, which has resulted in widespread flooding, and has been going on for centuries?

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In reply to hdavies15

Zarah Daniel

I hear a lot of complaints from residents of the wider area around the Brechfa forest...So, you hate wind farms but you still want electricity? Perhaps you'd prefer a coal fired power station in your back yard? No? Ok..... What about a nuclear power station??? Didn't think so. You want the advantages but expect OTHERS to live with whatever inconvenience is required to make it happen. You're getting a power source that won't leave a permanent layer of ick over your home and nor will it be subtly altering the cells of your own body until they turn cancerous....... Be thankful every time you boil the kettle or turn a light on and have a moment's thought for those who have been living next door to whatever source provided your electricity all your life that WASN'T a nice, clean wind turbine.

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Mick

I'm a big fan of wind generation but unfortunately wind farms are built on top of hills but roads and access to get turbines and equipment up to site do cut great swathes through lower countryside restitution takes years. Unfortunately then they get paid to turn them off because of lack of forward planning and poor organisation

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In reply to Mick

David J

"Great swathes"? No, narrow access roads. Try looking at a map or satellite view. Restitution (ie tree planting) does indeed take years, but there is plenty of wildlife in the areas around new windfarms; it is not a desert until the trees are mature! As for turning them off, electricity consumption is obviously variable, and all power stations need to be "off" from time to time. We need to build more storage, whether battery, pump storage (eg. Dinorwic) or whatever.

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Alan Raymond

The scummy person felled the tree!

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Howard

Only a conifer

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Leave a reply

Replying to David J Cancel

"Great swathes"? No, narrow access roads. Try looking at a map or satellite view. Restitution (ie tree planting) does indeed take years, but there is plenty of wildlife in the areas around new windfarms; it is not a desert until the trees...

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