Threatened trees in Stapleton wood worth half a million

Doomed trees at a beauty spot in Stapleton have been valued at almost £500,000.

Campaigners fighting to save them say they should not be chopped down because of their worth to the community.

Last month Bristol City Council gave permission for landowner Lord Houshang Jafari to fell the trees, which sit at the edge of a wood alongside the River Frome.

They border Blackberry Hill, and the council says they could fall on to the highway or hit pedestrians.

But people who have enjoyed the woods for years say the trees are a feature of the neighbourhood and are worth keeping.

Campaigners from the Snuff Mills Action Group have used an assessment called the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (CAVAT) to calculate their financial worth. It takes into account criteria such as size, height, condition and popularity.

The campaigners claim the total worth of the trees is £641,500, with the value of the 'non-hazardous' trees being £481,754.

However, the council says they have massively overestimated their worth, particularly given their debatable value to the community.

Action group chairman Steve Micklewright said, "We have undertaken an assessment of the trees that the city council has given permission to be felled in Grove Wood using a system that has been adopted by London's tree officers.

"We carefully made the assessment by measuring the trees, assessing their contribution to the Stapleton Conservation Area and looking for any problems such as disease, poor growth or instability.

"While our assessment will not be as good as a professional one, we believe it highlights that the council has fundamentally misjudged the contribution these trees make to the area.

"We lodged a complaint with the council in July, but we weren't satisfied with its initial response so we've asked for it to be considered by the council's chief executive."

The group says the council has not delivered on its obligations to protect a largely ancient woodland in a conservation area.

Mr Micklewright said: "The council has had several opportunities to apply a tree preservation order to Grove Wood. We just don't understand why they haven't done so. We hope to get clear answers soon."

A spokeswoman for the council said: "CAVAT is used by some councils to find an approximate value for publicly-owned trees, based on the size of the trunk, height, condition and – crucially – the number of people who have access to the tree.

"CAVAT can only be meaningfully calculated by surveyors with the information supplied by other experts.

"Britain's most 'valuable' trees are on Berkeley Square in Mayfair and are valued at £750,000. This is for the reason that they are enjoyed by millions of visitors a year.

"The trees 'assessed' by Snuff Mills Action Group are privately owned and are not subject to CAVAT. In any case, the figures supplied are unlikely to be accurate given the fact that there is no public access to the site."