Residents fight to protect tree from the chop

NEIGHBOURS are fighting to protect a 100-year-old tree from the hands of developers following proposed plans to chop it down. Residents living around a 30ft Ash tree which has been growing at the bottom of a garden in Commercial Road, Limehouse, for a

NEIGHBOURS are fighting to protect a 100-year-old tree from the hands of developers following proposed plans to chop it down.

Residents living around a 30ft Ash tree which has been growing at the bottom of a garden in Commercial Road, Limehouse, for a century are hoping to block developers' plans to chop it down.

The area where the tree stands is part of the Lowell Street Conservation Area which covers the north side of Commercial Road at the junction with Lowell Street.

But the tree will soon be surrounded by a brand new development including a four-storey house in the same garden.

Higgins Construction has submitted an application to Tower Hamlets council for permission to remove it over claims its roots are damaging the garden fence by growing underneath it and that once the house is built it will be difficult to maintain the tree.

But neighbour Marie Galea, 58, said: "It is the only bit of greenery that we have around here and all the birds are always nesting in it.

"We do not want it to go."

Residents have until next Wednesday to raise their concerns with the Town Hall.