A hollow victory

After five years of wrangling and a quarter of a million pounds of taxpayers’ money wasted on legal fees, a property-owner from the village of Irton near Scarborough has succeeded in having a 100-year-old beech tree cut down from the local high street.

Even if the councils involved are ultimately able to reclaim their costs, this sorry affair does not feel much like cause for celebration.

Surely there is a better way of resolving such issues, without the need for a five-year court battle? Perhaps, even, homeowners could learn to live alongside the grand old trees near their houses, rather than treating them as nuisances to be destroyed?

For the only real winners are the lawyers, who laughing all the way to the bank following this farcical case.