Looks like they’ve cut down trees

[AllrightNowBaby]

AIBU to pursue this issue?
During the Summer I walk my dog around a nearby wood.
This weekend I was shocked to see a very large area, behind two houses backing onto the wood, had been decimated of trees,
After speaking to other dog walkers, someone had seen men cutting the trees during Winter and they thought it odd as obviously not council workers.
The wood is looked after by the Parks and Gardens dept, so I reported it to them.
They took some notes and told me they’d get back to me but haven’t done.
I feel I should take this further, as it’s obviously the residents of the two houses who have wantonly destroyed 10 mature trees, leaving a very obvious and odd square of tree stumps, huge logs and huge mounds of wood chips.
I think this must be criminal damage to destroy trees on land not belonging to you.
I’m thinking of reporting to the Parish Council and if no joy from them, the local MP.
Has anyone any other suggestions?

Disease, storm damage, because whoever owns them wanted to, could be a number of reasons why they were chopped down.

You’re jumping to a lot of conclusions, follow up with the parks dept before jumping to MP and the like.

Thanks for all your help, I’m going to follow up with the Parks and Gardens dept and if no joy I’ll try Parish Council and then MP.
Unless you’ve seen it as I have, you can’t really judge but it doesn’t look very professionally done and I know which tree company has the contract for the council, they wear uniforms with logo on the back.
I’ve walked this wood for over 30 years and have seen the odd old or diseased tree felled…but nothing like this.
The wood definitely belongs to the council, there is a Countryside sign at the entrance and sign’s for no horses allowed.
If for some reason the council have felled the trees all well and good but that is what I’m going to find out.

I've not seen what area you are in - but if you're in Wales then the NRW will take action - I have personal experiance with this and involved in a current investigation so have a lot of current information (if it is in Wales).

There was outrage here when woods were "decimated" but it was all planned copppicing as part of the woodland management.

Report by all means and follow up a response, but I'd bet it's all above board.

I wouldn't be getting involved in this. Probably they were diseased (ash and horse chestnut populations have issues at the moment).

have you emailed your local councillors, mine always reply in good time. They’ll be able to advise better than us.

Update:
The Arborist from the council called me and told me that they are already aware of the trees being demolished.
They have reported the matter to the police and estimate there has been £100k of criminal damage to council property.
He told me it didn’t take a brain surgeon to know who was responsible but the police have no actual proof and on making enquiries with neighbours, apparently no one knows anything.
He says he thinks the two house might want to extend their gardens by applying to rent this now devastated land off the council..but he is going to block any applications from them if they try.
I’ve emailed a councillor who I know has strong connections to this area asking his to chase up the police and am waiting for a reply.
I’ve also got Friends of local parks onboard and hopefully they can carry this forward.

Well done you for taking notice and taking action. Round here we have the total destruction of HS2. The acres (square miles) of treeless desert is more than upsetting. I think of the migratory birds who left these shores last year, and are returning to treeless, ravaged, deserts of nothingness. And what for?
I think in general people don't realise it takes a lot of human generations to see the maturity of one tree. So sad. And of course our loss of trees is legal, so nothing we can do.

Absolutely heartbreaking, the wanton destruction of thousands of trees just for trains which are supposedly going to make a journey from London to Manchester half an hour quicker.
And don’t get me started on the Drax bio-mass stupidity and lies…

They are not going to Manchester. Just Birmingham. It’s a total waste of money and huge destruction of habitats.

Could it be from the heavy winds late last year/early this year? If a couple of.big trees were dangerous perhaps they cleared those that risked falling on their homes?

He sounds completely unprofessional!

He was a professional arborist.

Still not allowed to cut down trees on someone else’s property (I.e. council property).
Also nine trees in one small area are very unlikely to have become dangerous all at the same time.

I think they meant that it's unprofessional behaviour to effectively tell a member of the public (you) that the people who own the houses are probably the guilty parties when by their own admission the police have no proof this is the case.

It's a separate issue to whether whoever cut the trees down was justified or not. (They weren't by the sound of it.) A professional person doesn't make unproven allegations to a third party not directly connected with the case. If the arborist is a professional person they'd pass on any evidence or opinions to the police, not to random people like you.

It's the equivalent of you reporting someone to social services because you think he's abusing his kids, and then them telling you that "he's probably a paedo" but there's no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Above reply to maddening

Even if they weren’t our council contracts a lot of this work out

It wouldn’t take a brain surgeon to work out who the culprits are and the arborist is entitled to his opinion on who he thinks did this damage.

Because the council arborist has told me that it was not done by the council or by anyone employed by the council.

You and the arborist can hold an opinion but I think you should be very careful about accusing people without evidence.

I also think he's been reckless and unprofessional in identifying who he thinks is responsible without proof. If you don't want to get him into trouble I'd be careful not to repeat what he said to you.

You've done all you can, now you need to let the police do their job.

Exactly. He’s gossiping and that’s completely unprofessional, as is his claim that he will be blocking any future planning applications from those addresses. That’s absolutely ludicrous and completely against any planning policies.

He’s not entitled to start gossiping about it with you though!

And he's not in any position to do it either, unless he's also in charge of planning...

The area is going to be replanted with trees and the Trees and Woods dept would be consulted by planning for any garden extension into the wood.
As it would be a newly planted area, they would not be able to extend 😊