Save The Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree
Save The Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree
Latest: Jan. 24, 2021
A Judicial Review At The High Court For The Bethnal Green Mulberry
I am overjoyed to announce that our campaign – under the patronage of Dame Judi Dench – has succeeded in obtaining a Judicial Review at the High Court for Tower Hamlets Council’s de…
Read moreWe are a group of East London residents - under the patronage of Dame Judi Dench - challenging Tower Hamlets Council over plans to dig up the veteran Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree and demolish part of a historic listed building as part of developer Crest Nicholson’s redevelopment of the former London Chest Hospital (part of the Victoria Park Conservation area).
Anyone that donates £100 or more will receive a cutting of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S MULBERRY TREE. Planted in Stratford Upon Avon by the poet in 1610, it was cut down in 1770 but David Garrick rescued a cutting which flourishes to this day. Your cutting comes from this tree. Send an email to [email protected] and we will supply your rooted cutting next year. (Available only to the first 100.)
We understand there is a pressing local need for genuinely affordable housing but whatever is built on this site in Bethnal Green will have an impact for generations to come, so it is vital to get it right. We want the development to be done in a sensitive way - so that it doesn't detrimentally affect the veteran Mulberry Tree and the unique built heritage of the main hospital building.
We are raising funds to pay for a Judicial Review of the Council’s decision to issue planning permission which includes digging up the Bethnal Green Mulberry. We need to pay court fees, solicitor’s costs and barrister’s fees.
At this stage, we are raising £10,000 to allow us to file the Judicial Review proceedings at Court and apply for an injunction (if necessary) to prevent Crest Nicholson digging up the Mulberry Tree before the Judicial Review proceedings have been resolved by the Court.
As a first step we have engaged in pre-action correspondence with the Council and Crest Nicholson and have set out in a pre-action letter the draft grounds for Judicial Review. It is open to the Council to concede defeat before proceedings have even been issued.
If the Council does not concede, the next step will be to issue the claim at Court and apply for permission to bring Judicial Review proceedings. This will be served on the Council as the Defendant and Crest Nicholson as an Interested Party. All this must be done by 20th November 2020.
If the Defendant and Interested Party want to contest the claim, they will need to file a summary defence. A judge will then consider whether to grant permission to bring the proceedings without a hearing. If the judge considers there is an arguable case, they will grant permission to bring Judicial Review proceedings and the claim will proceed to a hearing.
The hearing could take place early next year
This is a strong campaign, valiantly led by the East End Preservation Society, that has raised the profile of this beautiful venerable living icon but we have to fight if we want to resist the wanton destruction of our veteran trees and built heritage at the expense of a greedy-profit driven development.
Sign our petition: https://www.change.org/p/crest-nicholson-developers-save-the-bethnal-green-mulberry
Read more on Spitalfields Life: http://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/09/21/the-fate-of-the-bethnal-green-mulberry/
Read more in The Daily Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/how-to-grow/ancient-london-mulberry-tree-threatened-block-luxury-flats/
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Geoffrey Juden
Jan. 24, 2021
A Judicial Review At The High Court For The Bethnal Green Mulberry
I am overjoyed to announce that our campaign – under the patronage of Dame Judi Dench – has succeeded in obtaining a Judicial Review at the High Court for Tower Hamlets Council’s decision to permit Crest Nicholson’s redevelopment of the former London Chest Hospital, which includes digging up the more-than-four-hundred-year-old Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree.
This means we can now proceed to a full hearing if we can raise £10,000. We are again offering rooted cuttings of Shakespeare’s Mulberry Tree (as rescued by David Garrick in 1770) to everyone who contributes £100 or more to our legal fund. This is a once in a lifetime chance to acquire a cutting of Shakespeare’s Mulberry and enjoy a living connection to the world’s greatest writer.
Last year, thanks to your support we employed top environmental lawyers Harrison Grant to draw up the grounds for Judicial Review. We submitted these to the council to give them the opportunity to withdraw their decision but they refused. Consequently, we have no choice but to go to the High Court if we are to save the historic Bethnal Green Mulberry and stop this bad development.
Under planning law, ‘wholly exceptional reasons’ are required to sacrifice a veteran tree of the protected status of the Bethnal Green Mulberry. Yet Tower Hamlets Council gave permission for the tree to be dug up – which will almost certainly kill it – for the sake of a bog-standard block of luxury flats.
This is part of an overblown development with an unacceptably low level of ‘affordable’ flats in which the social housing will be accessed by a separate ‘poor gate.’ As well as the Bethnal Green Mulberry, the developers want to dig up a large number of mature trees on the site, blighting the Victoria Park Conservation Area for generations to come.
The pandemic has taught us we must show respect for Nature and in future we should avoid building densely-crowded housing.
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT OUR LEGAL FUND TO SAVE THE BETHNAL GREEN MULBERRY
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