Yew tree feller fined £750

THE owner of a Grade 2 listed pub at Eversley who had a yew tree chopped down was fined £750 at Aldershot Magistrates’ Court today (Wednesday).

Peter Doyle, owner of the White Hart, pleaded guilty to destroying the tree in a Conservation Area without permission from Hart Council as planning authority.

He was also ordered to pay costs of £392.10 and a victim surcharge of £15.

Miss Melanie Walklate for Hart told the bench that Eversley Parish Council reported in July that the yew had been wilfully destroyed. Trees in a conservation area could not be felled unless a notice had been served on the local authority at least six weeks before.

She said the previous landlord had been advised that the White Hart was in a conservation area.

Mr Doyle later told the Council that he did not know this. He claimed that the tree was diseased and he had felled it because it was dangerous.

Miss Walklate said photographs of the tree did not show it to be dangerous and the one next to it remained today. Hart’s tree officer said what remained was useless as an amenity and would not survive.

She pointed out that in June Hart had received a planning application for a timber framed shed and the tree was in the area where it was to be erected.

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