Campaigners plead with Sadiq Khan and council to save trees destined for the chop

Campaigners from Save Our Square E17 hosted the event in Walthamstow Town Square to whip up public support for their efforts in trying to save the trees and stop the multi million pound scheme from going ahead.

They pleaded with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Waltham Forest Council to intervene and stop the trees from being felled. 

It comes less than a week after Mr Khan gave the green light to Capital & Regional’s plans to build four high-rise tower blocks with 500 apartments as well as shops and restaurants in the square.

Passersby stopped at the group’s stall and wrote messages on posters before tying them to the trees which line a pathway connecting Walthamstow Central station and the high street.

Messages included, ‘Don’t let them chop me down to build tower blocks for the rich’, ‘Save our air, spare this tree’, and ‘Sadiq Khan, don’t condemn to death 81 trees’.

Other posters read, ‘100 years to grow, 10 seconds to cut down’, ‘These trees absorb the pollution from the buses and save our kids’ and ‘Save our lungs’.

Secretary of Save Our Square E17, David Gardiner said: “Eighty-one mature trees, mainly limes, are destined for the chain saw.

“The group are asking for those opposing the tree cull in Sheffield and other environmentalist groups to stand alongside them in solidarity and refuse to allow Capital and Regional to trash the town square in this way.”

The group has spent the past year campaigning against the regeneration scheme and have collected more than 3,000 signatures on a petition opposing the tower blocks.

Waltham Forest Council, who passed the plans in December, say for every tree chopped down, five will be planted elsewhere in the borough.