Judicial review threat halts city council plan to fell street trees

The High Court will this week hear a claim against Coventry City Council over the local authority's plans to fell 26 road-side trees in order to install a new cycleway.

The court will hear the judicial review application and will also consider an urgent interim injunction that was secured on Monday (3 March) that blocked planned work on the scheme.

Coventry aims to chop down the trees to construct a section of a 3.75-mile cycle route between the city centre and University Hospital Coventry.

Much of the route – known as the Binley Cycleway Scheme – has already been built, but construction of the treelined section along Clifford Bridge Road has been delayed by residents who oppose the felling of the trees and have raised safety concerns about the new lane.

Following four rounds of local engagement to help develop the proposals, councillors eventually approved the removal of the trees for the Clifford Bridge Road section of the cycleway in December 2024.

At the time, Coventry said the decision was made based on consideration of responses, representations and objections to Tree Felling Notices, Notice of Proposal and Notices of Intent, and the petitioner's concerns relating to the proposed cycleway and tree felling.

Work to cut the trees down was set to take place last week but was thwarted after campaigners secured an interim injunction as part of a judicial review application.

The High Court is now set to consider the judicial review application and the urgent application for an interim order on Thursday this week (6 March).

The claimant, who is represented by Alice Goodenough of Goodenough Ring Solicitors, is advancing the following grounds:

• Ground 1: The decision to finalise the scheme and assess the safety of the design after the trees have been felled is irrational. "There is every possibility that the further design required will result in material modifications in design, and fewer trees being affected", the claim argues.
• Ground 2 – there has been a failure to carry out the consultation on the street trees properly, to allow for a proper consideration of the alternatives.
• Ground 3 – The decision to fell the trees before finalising the scheme's design is in breach of the legitimate expectation that the public would be able to see the design brief and comment on it, and that no final decision had been made;
• Ground 4: The council has failed to take account of the health condition of the trees being felled with regard to their amenity value. All the trees are healthy and show no signs of damage or stress above and beyond what is normal for any urban street tree, the claim argues.
• Ground 5: the scheme was approved before seeing the results of an Equality Impact Assessment, and despite the specific concerns raised regarding the impacts on disabled users of the street and their safety.

William Upton KC of 6 Pump Court has also been instructed by Goodenough Ring Solicitors.

According to the group's crowdfunding page, the council "has failed to acknowledge and address the serious safety concerns of this design on this route for cyclists, residents and other road users".

Announcing the judicial review claim late last month (28 February), the claimant said: "It has been a very challenging time for everybody involved in the campaign to save the 26 mature trees on Clifford Bridge Road and to have all the serious safety issues of the dual cycleway resolved.

"Cabinet meetings, scrutiny meetings, residents meetings, hundreds of emails and reports, FOI requests, petitions, consultations, our tree hug demo, local and national media, some really good councillor support - we've tried so hard to have all concerns addressed and to keep our street trees but Coventry City Council (some officers, some councillors) have continued to defend their unsafe plan with the unnecessary loss of our trees and they were due to make a start - to meet their £1.5m funding deadline - by felling the trees on Monday."

She added: "Our first letter of intent stopped the trees from being chopped down last week.

"The outline case was presented and has been accepted and sealed by the court with a hearing date set for Thursday 6 March in London.

"Based on all the evidence, we hope our case will then go on to a full judicial review."

Coventry City Council has been approached for comment.

Adam Carey