A PETITION has been signed by more than 75 residents of a new housing estate in Wrecclesham, backing developer Bewley Homes’ crusade to save over 30 mature trees from being cut down.

The line of trees, including mature oaks, horse chestnuts and Douglas firs, provide a striking frontage to the ex-Garden Style Nursery site, bordering the A325 at the top of Wrecclesham Hill.

However, it comes just two years after councillors slammed a series of “appalling” planning breaches on the site – including the felling of an area of ancient woodland and irreparable damage to the same row of A325 trees Bewley is now fighting to retain.

This prompted the council to impose a planning condition in 2019 requiring the A325 trees to be replaced with semi-mature oaks and maples, based on the results of a “thorough assessment” which found the trees to be diseased and unsafe.

But in response, Bewley Homes says it has commissioned its own independent tree survey, undertaken by Keen Consultants in March 2019, which concluded the majority of trees are instead in good health and should be retained.

The developer has since submitted a S73 application to re-word the landscaping condition that currently requires all the frontage trees to be felled and replaced with 19 new oak trees. 

Jago Keen, director of Keen Consultants, said: “The Waverley tree officer has raised concerns about the trees and wants them to be removed on the basis they are, or are likely to be, infected with disease, but there is no evidence to back this up, stating they are structurally compromised and warrant removal.”

Residents now living on the development are also calling for the trees to be saved.

Beverley Ward, who lives at Acacia Gardens, said; “We organised this petition because we think this is an outrage. I can’t believe Waverley has ordered Bewley Homes to chop down 30 healthy, perfectly good mature trees that have been happily growing for over 50 years. It’s ridiculous.”

A Waverley spokesman said: “Waverley Borough Council granted planning permission in 2019 for the residential redevelopment of this site. At the time, a thorough assessment of the trees to the front of the site revealed historic root damage and the presence of disease.

“This, in combination with the structural vulnerability of the species concerned and their location, indicated a limited safe and useful life expectancy.

“Approval was therefore granted on the basis the trees would be felled and the developer would replace them.”