A CAMPAIGN has been sparked to save a 200-year-old tree that is due to be cut down to make way for a controversial new retail park.

People in Debden say the Corsican pine in Chigwell Lane is an important part of the area’s skyline and want a rethink on plans to expand the junction with Border’s Lane as part of the controversial Langston Road retail park, which would see it being chopped down.

Campaigner Geoff Boughton, 67, of Colson Road, said: “It’s a very special tree and I remember it from when I was a child.

“It’s not the prettiest tree, but it’s a real part of Debden. We’ve lost a lot of trees around Border’s Lane.

“I think something can be done. If they want to build something, build it around the tree.

“The council has said it will replace it, but how can you replace a 200-year-old tree the size of that?”

He and fellow Debden residents Pete Relph and Ray Harris have tied a sign to the pine reading 'This tree sentenced to death by EFDC. Don't let them give it the chop' and Mr Boughton is writing to councillors and planning a petition on the issue.

The pine is thought to have been planted by William Whitaker Maitland, the lord of the manor in Loughton during Queen Victoria’s reign, who bought the rights to Epping Forest before his grandson John famously started fencing it off, leading to the 1878 Epping Forest Act.

But the district council has so far refused to back down over the tree, which it says must make way for the mini roundabout at the junction to be replaced with traffic lights in a bid to ease traffic flow ahead of the opening of the Langston Road retail park.

A district council spokeswoman said: “There is a particular bottleneck at this location, causing traffic congestion.

“It is unfortunate that this tree is in the way of the necessary and essential enhancement of the highway.

“It is impossible to carry out the improvements in any other location.”

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