Waiting for the Sycamore gap outrage to be funnelled into a 550 year old tree cut down for a dual carriageway any time now…
Wonder how much of a backhander the council got to approve it?
The plans were available for the tree in its local planning office.
Cut them down! Cut them all down! – Saruman the Stupid
Could they not move it somewhere? Then everyone is happy.
Charles Darwin’s doing well for himself, writing for the Guardian.
It’s an old tree, and it would be a shame for it to be cut down — but compared to, say, the Sycamore Gap tree, it’s not something regularly visited or photographed by tourists, it’s not in an AONB, and if it’s only ‘claim to fame’ is that Charles Darwin *might* have climbed up it as a boy, is that really valid reason to avoid cutting it down?
The planned North West Relief Road around Shrewsbury is highly controversial, but it *is* necessary. Ask anyone that has experienced high traffic conditions in the town centre at random times. It’s so unpredictable outside of the normal rush hour traffic.
A sad but necessary sacrifice to avoid visiting Shrewsbury
Feel like a good middle ground during the original planning process would had been the developers offer to attempt relocating it.. I mean even considering the chance it fails/doesn’t take, if they were going to fell it in any case would had at least been a nod to those that want to preserve it
Darwin would no doubt be ecstatic to see his theories borne out. Chop enough trees down and the only ones left will be the ones that have evolved to take root in places people don’t want to build dual carriageways.
These kind road projects lead to reduced carbon output and less pollution in towns. It feels like the tree is worth losing for that
I’ve seen them relocate trees in Japan without felling why can’t we do it over here.
I don’t know why when the technology exists to move the tree other than kill it.
Good.
This country has gone absolutely insane when it comes to development.
The cost of housing is crushing so many people right now and new wind and solar farms have to wait up to a decade for a national grid connection because people oppose pylons so much. A housing development in west London was cancelled due to lack of grid capacity.
We have to have infrastructure to live, it’s really important, we have to live in a country where you can build stuff.
>As an eight-year-old, Charles Darwin may have sat in the shade beneath its boughs and climbed its branches.
Hey “may” have sat under it???? That’s supposed to be sufficient cause to block a major road development, to save one tree?
The Nimbys are doing their best to kill this country.
We need one warm, safe, bedroom accessible to everyone in the country and personally I think anyone who stands in the way of achieving that is morally bankrupt.
Of course protecting nature and history is important but honestly we’ve gone so much too far in that direction and become crazy people.
Building new car dependant infrastructure is incompatible with achieving our climate goals. Destroying such rare and valuable trees to do so is just an extra kick in the teeth.
Edit: Shrewsbury is at the intersection of 5 trainlines but has only one train station. Extra stations could be build on the existing lines on the north, west and south sides of town. Better ultilisation of existing infrastructure, less car journeys, cleaner air, protection for the surviving green space…
Hold on so if the locals don’t want it and the council ignored them and does it. Why is the council still in power? Why do we all vote in people who just do what they want!?? Never asking people?!!
This is typical. Muppet councillors who have the imagination of a bird and fail to ask hard questions of the Highways agency. For instance, why can’t the route be altered to accommodate the tree, God knows they take 10x the land the road requires to build the thing, so some adjustment should possible. Maybe the vandals who chopped the Sycamore Gap tree should have got consent from the council. On this evidence they would have.
Absolutely disgraceful. Every tree of this age we lose should be considered a crime.
It’s funny, every time I see a picture of that tree that was cut down, all I can think of is…where is the rest of the forest.
Feels kinda like that scene in the Simpsons with the Native American crying because of rubbish thrown out of a car only to realise he was standing in front of a never ending rubbish dump where Springfield was.
A special Tory party thanks goes out to all the HS2 environmental protesters who helped enable the right-wing to divert most funding away from new public transport towards thousands of new dual carriageways around the country instead.
Feel it should be more widely known that there is **ZERO** evidence connecting Darwin to the tree. The best the campaigners can come up with is entirely imaginary – they just say that he lived in the area at one point, so he ‘may’ have climbed up it. It’s borderline dishonest to sell it as “Darwin’s oak” when there is no known factual connexion between it and him.
22 comments
Waiting for the Sycamore gap outrage to be funnelled into a 550 year old tree cut down for a dual carriageway any time now…
Wonder how much of a backhander the council got to approve it?
The plans were available for the tree in its local planning office.
Cut them down! Cut them all down! – Saruman the Stupid
Could they not move it somewhere? Then everyone is happy.
Charles Darwin’s doing well for himself, writing for the Guardian.
It’s an old tree, and it would be a shame for it to be cut down — but compared to, say, the Sycamore Gap tree, it’s not something regularly visited or photographed by tourists, it’s not in an AONB, and if it’s only ‘claim to fame’ is that Charles Darwin *might* have climbed up it as a boy, is that really valid reason to avoid cutting it down?
The planned North West Relief Road around Shrewsbury is highly controversial, but it *is* necessary. Ask anyone that has experienced high traffic conditions in the town centre at random times. It’s so unpredictable outside of the normal rush hour traffic.
A sad but necessary sacrifice to avoid visiting Shrewsbury
Feel like a good middle ground during the original planning process would had been the developers offer to attempt relocating it.. I mean even considering the chance it fails/doesn’t take, if they were going to fell it in any case would had at least been a nod to those that want to preserve it
Darwin would no doubt be ecstatic to see his theories borne out. Chop enough trees down and the only ones left will be the ones that have evolved to take root in places people don’t want to build dual carriageways.
These kind road projects lead to reduced carbon output and less pollution in towns. It feels like the tree is worth losing for that
I’ve seen them relocate trees in Japan without felling why can’t we do it over here.
I don’t know why when the technology exists to move the tree other than kill it.
Good.
This country has gone absolutely insane when it comes to development.
The cost of housing is crushing so many people right now and new wind and solar farms have to wait up to a decade for a national grid connection because people oppose pylons so much. A housing development in west London was cancelled due to lack of grid capacity.
We have to have infrastructure to live, it’s really important, we have to live in a country where you can build stuff.
>As an eight-year-old, Charles Darwin may have sat in the shade beneath its boughs and climbed its branches.
Hey “may” have sat under it???? That’s supposed to be sufficient cause to block a major road development, to save one tree?
The Nimbys are doing their best to kill this country.
We need one warm, safe, bedroom accessible to everyone in the country and personally I think anyone who stands in the way of achieving that is morally bankrupt.
I mean [on this same sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/17mqg2v/royal_regiment_veteran_sentenced_for_poundland/) is a story about an Afghanistan veteran who got severe brain damage on active service who now lives on the street due to a lack of housing. I feel so ashamed of how we behave as a nation when it comes to looking after people.
Of course protecting nature and history is important but honestly we’ve gone so much too far in that direction and become crazy people.
Building new car dependant infrastructure is incompatible with achieving our climate goals. Destroying such rare and valuable trees to do so is just an extra kick in the teeth.
Edit: Shrewsbury is at the intersection of 5 trainlines but has only one train station. Extra stations could be build on the existing lines on the north, west and south sides of town. Better ultilisation of existing infrastructure, less car journeys, cleaner air, protection for the surviving green space…
Hold on so if the locals don’t want it and the council ignored them and does it. Why is the council still in power? Why do we all vote in people who just do what they want!?? Never asking people?!!
This is typical. Muppet councillors who have the imagination of a bird and fail to ask hard questions of the Highways agency. For instance, why can’t the route be altered to accommodate the tree, God knows they take 10x the land the road requires to build the thing, so some adjustment should possible. Maybe the vandals who chopped the Sycamore Gap tree should have got consent from the council. On this evidence they would have.
Absolutely disgraceful. Every tree of this age we lose should be considered a crime.
It’s funny, every time I see a picture of that tree that was cut down, all I can think of is…where is the rest of the forest.
Feels kinda like that scene in the Simpsons with the Native American crying because of rubbish thrown out of a car only to realise he was standing in front of a never ending rubbish dump where Springfield was.
https://youtu.be/zvJ4_sa4gno?si=MZJgHxtJcLwDMiEF
A special Tory party thanks goes out to all the HS2 environmental protesters who helped enable the right-wing to divert most funding away from new public transport towards thousands of new dual carriageways around the country instead.
Feel it should be more widely known that there is **ZERO** evidence connecting Darwin to the tree. The best the campaigners can come up with is entirely imaginary – they just say that he lived in the area at one point, so he ‘may’ have climbed up it. It’s borderline dishonest to sell it as “Darwin’s oak” when there is no known factual connexion between it and him.
Contact the Woodland Trust and local wildlife groups to see whether you can get a Preservation Order. If there are rare wildlife living in or visiting the tree, you can get a preservation order and the Council must protect it. https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/what-we-record-and-why/why-we-record/ancient-tree-protection/