Toby Carvery defends chopping down ‘irreplaceable’ 400-year-old oak tree

The owners of Toby Carvery are under fire after an ‘irreplaceable’ ancient oak in north London was chopped down.

The tree, which is up to 500 years old, has been reduced to a stump.

Enfield Council, which owns the land, has called in the police who are hunting for the culprits.

The tree is on the edge of a Toby Carvery pub car park with chain Mitchells & Butlers leasing the land from the council – but the company says they were told the tree caused a ‘serious health and safety risk’.

Campaigners have collected a petition demanding a full investigation and the protection of further trees in the area known as Whitewebbs.

Ed Allnutt from the campaign Guardians of Whitewebbs told Metro: ‘We want justice for the oak we have lost.

‘We need a full investigation into his this could have happened. The tree is irreplaceable.

‘The first we knew was a local posting pictures of a crew bringing the tree down.

‘We are devastated and apprehensive for the future the park. We are in the dark about how this happened we have photos of vehicles from the scene we need the police to investigate fully.

‘We need to know who did this and why.

‘The tree’s value is estimable. These are incredibly rare she can be home to thousands of species.

‘It was one of the top 100 ancient oaks in London. It’s an alleged act of vandalism against nature this is very serious.’

Dog walker Hayley Pugh, who saw the crew cutting the tree told Metro: ‘There were three blokes with chainsaws and unmarked vans. It’s awful, I’m here every day.

‘It’s terrible for the wildlife such a vast and beautiful tree. They were not professional tree surgeons I don’t think.’

A spokesperson for Mitchells & Butlers said: ‘The tree was cut back after we were advised that it caused a serious health and safety risk.

‘This was an essential action to protect our employees and guests, to whom we have a duty of care.

‘Upon further inspection, our specialist arboriculture contractors made the assessment that the split and dead wood posed a serious health and safety risk and advised that the tree was unsafe and should be removed.

‘We took every necessary measure to ensure all legal requirements were met.

‘We are grateful to our expert contractors for warning us of this hazard so swiftly, allowing us to act before anyone was harmed.’

Jack Taylor from conservation organisation the Woodlands Trust said: ‘It’s really shocking, we don’t see this very often at all. This does not have permission, it’s particularly shocking. It was truly alive, it was not a dead tree.

‘We want a full investigation we want legal heritage for trees like listed buildings.

‘Maybe that could prevent or deter this sort of thing. You cannot rebuild a tree, it takes many centuries.’

It comes as the Tree Council and Forest Research published a report on Monday, calling for a ‘robust and effective system’ of protections as part of a wider action plan to protect England’s most important trees in the wake of the Sycamore Gap tree felling in September 2023.

The trial of the two men accused of felling the Sycamore Gap tree is due to take place later this month in Newcastle Crown Court.

The Whitewebbs Wood is the ancient area where Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot conspirators used a house on the edge of the wood to hatch their plot before they attacked parliament.

The tree did not have a tree preservation order on it because it was on council land, which should have given it automatic protection.

Leader of Enfield Council Ergin Erbil said: ‘Enfield Council cares deeply about protecting trees and green spaces in the borough.

‘We were recently made aware of the felling of an ancient oak tree in  Whitewebbs Wood, which occurred on April 3.

‘The council was not informed of this until last week.

‘Our teams immediately carried out a full site inspection to assess the damage after receiving reports of the damage done to the tree.

‘We are treating the matter as criminal damage and have reported it to the police. We’ve now placed a legal protection (tree preservation order) on the tree and are looking at ways to grow it back.

‘We will continue to work closely with the police as they continue their investigation into this matter.’

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