Toby Carvery carves up ancient historic oak

[Yamadori]

Well that's it Toby Carvery, you have lost my custom. Permanently. And your toothless apology today has done nothing to make me change my mind. You make me sick.

Destroying one of the most historic, ancient and nationally important protected trees is an utter disgrace, and the fact that the police are saying it's a civil matter is a fucking joke as well.

They've done what?

and surely the tree suregons are pretty dodgy as well or they wouldn't have cut up the tree that much.
I get that trees need making safe after damage. but this was just awful.
what's wrong with people

It’s sheer vandalism.

I was hoping someone was going to end up in jail for that, but apparently it’s a civil matter.

What monster had the heart to cut such a magnificent tree.

I will be writing to my MP to demand more protection for trees.

Such a shame. Would have been a beautiful tree

What I don't get in this story is that the tree is in the park - why have Toby Carvery got responsibility for any of the trees in the park?

Stupid decision by them for sure, but even more stupid that any part of the park that has trees was sold/leased to them in the first place.

It should have been the councils job to look after it and this is a mistake that was much less likely to be made.

I don’t understand why this is a civil matter.

The sycamore was a criminal. Thought not sure what happened there? Did they get the customary slap in the wrists?

I don't understand the "we thought it was dead".
Surely a tree surgeon can tell if a tree is alive or dead?

@ARichtGoodDram
I thought their excuse was that the tree was overhanging their car park and they thought it might cause damage. I'm not 100% sure on that though.

It's horrendous, but if Enfield Council take legal action, I imagine it will be the taxpayers who pay for it. That doesn't seem right either.

I think we've probably hit the point where anyone cutting down trees needs to check with the local council. But I'm not sure if they'd have the information or if the information would be held by conservation groups.

I find it extraordinary that if my mum wanted to make a porch, she'd have to apply for planning permission, but you can just cut down a massive tree over hanging your land. I presume Toby carvery are going to say that it didn't have a TPO so they thought it was okay.

it's utterly disgraceful, but we clearly can't rely on anyone having common sense anymore.

I think it's civil because there's no malicious intent.

Mitchell & Butler were told, by a contractor, that the tree was dangerous so they dealt with it in a way that would have been appropriate if it was. It appears that there was a mix up between two trees.

The sycamore one was deliberately malicious, rather than an error.

But surely the tree surgeons would have noticed they are cutting into a live tree?

As people online have commented, even dead trees are homes to hundreds of species of living things. But it wasn't dead so wtf advised M&B to chop it down??

Such a waste. Pure vandalism.

I live in a borough that loves chopping down trees and I'm forever sending photos to them asking htf was this a risk. A neighbouring council chopped down trees to accommodate a sound stage for a festival. Trees are essential for our air quality and these idiots are destructive AHs!!

Apart from that, the area looks awful now. The aesthetic is ruined. I'm sorry for the residents of Enfield.

500 years old and with hundreds of years still to live.

I can't help thinking the tree contractors were just in it to make money. They should be named and shamed like Toby Carvery because they should have known better than to cut down a magnificent tree like that. It wasn't even Toby Carvery's tree to cut down or to risk assess either.

I hope the council do pursue them in whatever way they can.

I also don’t understand why they cut it down when it wasn’t even on their land. Would make more sense if it was a mix up between trees though.

You'd have thought after the Sycamore Gap horror no one would go near a tree like that, very poor show. I think the tree surgeons should be up there more so than Toby's carvery who presumably just took advice?

How is a mix up with a tree like this even possible?

Also, even I know when I prune my trees which one is dead and which one isn’t.

How come the tree surgeons didn’t notice?

Statement, or part of it, here

I noticed the letter was sent to local residents so I'm not sure if this went out to the press

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/northumberland-enfield-council-london-metropolitan-police-government-b1222859.html

I read that they’re up in court on criminal damages charges at the end of April.

Thanks!

It wasn’t a protected tree. Old yes but not protected and not the subject of a TPO

a report was done which advised them the tree was dead and a danger to the public had it fallen

Which clearly was not the case.

But the Council had done a report on it in December 2024 and it was not dead,

Maybe so and maybe there was an error on the report that Toby Carvery had done but at the end of the day the tree was neither protected nor TPOd

Oh that's OK then.

Obviously they were in error here and there's either been a mix up between trees or miscommunication somewhere. If they've been advised that a tree is dead and might fall on someone in the car park (which they'd be responsible for) I can understand why they'd want it cutting down ASAP. I'd say they acted with the best of intentions. You can't exactly go overriding expert opinions.

If someone needs punishing for this it's the people who got the report wrong or who cut a living tree down without checking.

Surely the tree surgeon has to take a lot of the responsibility here.

Anyone who isn't Dave from down the pub with his BiL's chainsaw setting themselves up in business as a tree surgeon, when standing in front of the tree, should be able to tell this isn't a tree that needed to be cut down.