New bid to save Wellingborough Walks trees as crunch meeting takes place today

An action group campaigning to save Wellingborough’s historic lime trees will meet with developers and North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) today.

Wellingborough Walks Action Group Ltd (WWAG Ltd) will discuss their plans to protect the remaining trees in The Walks that are in the path of a new road.

The meeting takes place a week after the group took their first legal step, a pre-action protocol, to protect the avenue in London Road

Representatives of consortium Stanton Cross LLP that includes developers Vistry, Wellingborough Town Council and NNC are due to the attend the summit.

Marion Turner-Hawes, chairman of WWAG Ltd, said: “We are going to day’s meeting with a clear intention of working positively with both NNC and Vistry representatives to see what can be done to safeguard the trees.

"We want to be able to get into the details of the situation and save the protected trees, to safeguard them, that’s why we are delighted that colleagues from Stanton Cross LLP and NNC are meeting with us.

"Personally, if I could wave a magic wand and get it sorted I would. It’s been a David versus Goliath – if we have to go to court we will.

"I want to give us a chance to come up with something, if we get some resolution it would be better sooner rather than later. It’s much better to sit down and come together.”

WWAG has now filed for a Judicial Review, the next part of the legal process in an attempt to protect the trees. A judge is on stand-by but asked to pause proceedings pending the outcome of the meeting.

The group is being advised by a highways expert to assess plans for the Route 2 into Stanton Cross that ploughs through the trees.

Ms Turner-Hawes added: “We are having to be focused solely on the protected trees and what can be done in this regard because of the legal parameters around judicial review which require that planning decisions made by councils, if problematic, must be challenged within six weeks of having been made. “Clearly the decisions regarding the layout of Route 2 itself were made originally back in 2008.

“The reason we can challenge regarding the trees is because there is a Tree Protection Order (TPO) in place and NNC took a decision very recently not to enforce the TPO, and it’s this decision we are challenging.

“We are hopeful that all parties will come with good intentions today to resolve the situation.”