High Court date for Wellingborough Walks Save Our Trees campaign but campaign still needs £10,000 for fighting fund

Campaigners fighting the felling of an avenue of trees in Wellingborough’s London Road have been given the date for a judicial review at the High Court.

Wellingborough Walks Action Group Ltd (WWAG) was formed after 16 Wellingborough Walks trees were chopped down by developers to make way for a new traffic interchange.

The group has managed to raise more than £60,000 for the legal battle to safeguard the historic trees arguing that each of the limes was covered by Tree Preservations Orders (TPOs).

WWAG will take their fight to London promising to hold those in authority ‘to account’ and attempt to safeguard the historic trees.

Lucy Hennessy from WWAG said: “We need to fight. With this court case we can prove that a small group like ours can take on those in authority. They are getting away with it and they need to be held to account.”

Since March, WWAG supporters and members paid for legal costs including barristers, solicitors and a highways consultant. Instead of going straight to court, WWAG engaged with developers Stanton Cross/Vistry Group and North Northants Council as the planning authority. But ‘technical discussions’ to thrash out a solution to save the remaining trees broke down during the summer.

A High Court judge will hear the case starting on Tuesday, April 30 – which has been scheduled to last one-and-a-half days.

Mrs Hennessy said: “We want as many people inside and outside the court as possible. We are asking tree groups from across the country to join us. It’s a call for action.

"We are feeling positive. That a judge would want to see this at the high court means we have a chance. We are fed up of losing our trees. You can’t replace a 150-year-old lime tree with a sapling. At long last we need to stand up and be strong and fight.”

Save Our Trees, the group formed to support WWAG will hold a bingo night tonight (Saturday, January 27) at 6.30pm at St Andrew’s Church Hall in Berrymoor Road, Wellingborough.

Mrs Hennessy added: “We still need to raise £10,000. We’d like to thank the community for their amazing support and in the future as we make the final push.”

For tickets and more information click here.

History of the Save the Trees campaign

In February 2023, residents heard 61 trees in London Road, Wellingborough were to be felled from the lower end of 'the Walks' – from the Dog and Duck pub down to the River Nene bridge.

During the following two weeks, contractors felled 16 of the trees to clear land to prepare for ‘Route Two’, a road cutting across from the A45 past The Embankment and forming the eastern bypass for Wellingborough to Stanton Cross.

Under the planning permission granted by the now disbanded Borough Council of Wellingborough, and inherited by North Northants Council the developer has asserted their right to fell the remaining trees.

Wellingborough Walks Action Group (WWAG Ltd) - a not for profit organisation, was formed in March 2023 and in May 2023 filed judicial review proceedings against North Northants Council , and the developer, Stanton Cross Developments Ltd.