Plymouth Armada Way tree-cutting contempt case bid fails

An attempt to take a municipality to court for felling more than a hundred trees at night has failed.

Campaigner Ali White asked the High Court for the green light to resume a contempt claim against Plymouth City Council after it felled 110 trees in Armada Way as part of a multi-million pound regeneration scheme in the area.

Mr Sheldon’s judgment dismissed Ms White’s contempt bid, saying the council’s actions in March 2023 were intended to prevent protest, rather than legal action.

Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans said he welcomed the end of all legal proceedings and that the council would now focus on delivering a new version of the regeneration plan for Armada Way.

Lawyers for Ms White, who applied to have the council held in contempt in November 2023, argued that the local authority had not given protesters sufficient time to challenge the logging in Armada Way, Plymouth.

The judge said “no real purpose was served” by a contempt hearing “solely for the purpose of holding the council accountable for something that made no material difference.”

Plymouth City Council was under Conservative control when the trees were cut down with an executive order signed by then-leader Richard Bingley.

Labor took control of the council in May 2023 and introduced a new £30 million plan for Armada Way.

An earlier, separate application by Ms White to the High Court for a judicial review of the logging was fired in March.

Evans said the authority was “finally able to put the issue of tree felling on the Armada Way to rest”.

He said legal challenges had been ‘frustrating’ and each case had ‘cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds’.

Evans said: “We have been clear since the beginning of this process that it was never in the best interests of the city to argue the merits and demerits of a decision that was subsequently struck down, and we are pleased that all pending legal action have now been completed. .”

The council will now hold an ‘independent learning inquiry’ into what happened – as agreed with the High Court in March.

Evans said the council would now “put all our efforts and focus on sorting out Armada Way” and promised that work would “accelerate over the coming months”.

Ms White would not yet comment on the court’s decision.