Residents' dismay over Catcliffe tree felling

Neighbours accused Network Space — formerly Langtree Group — of reducing the value of the land off Blue Mans Way in Catcliffe.

A plan for 64 homes was turned down by Rotherham Borough Council in February because of the loss of urban greenspace.

But the developer sent in contractors this week to “clear and level” the site — until being served with a notice to stop by RMBC on Wednesday.

Blue Mans Way resident Nick Howarth said: “The reason we won and it was turned down for planning permission was that this is valuable urban greenspace with the possibility to become a fabulous local woodland.

“But they’ve steamed ahead without notifying anyone.

“We thought it was just people using the footpaths at first, but they’ve actually been removing hundreds of trees.

“One of the contractors said they had been told to clear and level the entire site except for four of five trees with preservation orders.

“It’s a really dirty move. It’s their attempt to make the land less valuable. They council said they couldn’t build but this is the firm saying: ‘We’re going to do it anyway.’”

A Network Space spokesman said the works were part of general maintenance of the 6.5-acre site.

He added: “We have been carrying out clearance works to remove the majority of trees on site. It’s something we do across all our sites.

“We were served with a tree preservation order, which we can appeal. There’s no real justification, given that, apart from about six, the trees are identified as extremely low value.

“It’s a bit of knee-jerk reaction because of the concern of residents. I think some have said that it removes the green character of the site. But urban greenspace doesn’t mean it has to be the colour green.”

The firm has taken legal advice about appealing the refusal of its housing plan, which attracted 70 objection letters and a 119-name petition.

It said it had compromised by reducing the proposed number of properties and promising to keep the “buffer” on the public footpath beside the Sheffield Parkway.

The spokesman said: “It’s quite a hostile space and we were proposing to maintain a green corridor and improve the overall planting, including with a wildflower meadow.

“It’s bizarre that the application has taken this course but that’s politics. We’ve taken legal advice, whch says we have a very strong case.”

Rotherham Council’s planning manager, Bronwen Knight confirmed it had responded to drawn up and served an emergency tree preservation order (TPO) relating to all trees on the overall site.