A retired teacher tied herself to a tree in her neighbour’s garden for two-and-a-half hours in a desperate bid to stop it from being cut down.
Lindy Rogers, 73, strapped herself to the 50ft tree after storming into Steve Evans’ garden when she realised arborists had arrived at his home in Dorset.
Mr Evans had been trying to get the 70-year-old copper beech tree removed for the past year to prevent it from damaging his £800,000 property.
Neighbours argued it was not necessary to chop it down, and when Mrs Rogers spotted the arborists, she used a length of rope to tie herself to the trunk for her impromptu protest.
Despite five arborists being on site, Mrs Rogers remained there for two-and-a-half hours during which time Mr Evans, a local parish councillor, called the police.
In the end, an official from Dorset Council arrived to confirm the work could go ahead.
At that moment, Mrs Rogers finally gave up and untied herself, reluctantly allowing the tree to be chopped down.
Mrs Rogers argued that the tree ‘survived all the recent storms so it can’t be that weak’ and that remedial actions such as lopping off branches and cutting back roots could have preserved its life.
Despite five arborists being on site, Mrs Rogers remained tied to the tree for two-and-a-half hours
‘I was very fond of the beautiful tree and I wanted to save its life,’ she said.
The copper beech was the sister tree to one in the garden of Mrs Rogers’ £950,000 home on a private road in Bridport, Dorset.
Last year, Mrs Rogers unsuccessfully applied to have a Tree Protection Order placed on it to stop it from being felled.
‘It’s the sister tree of the one in our garden, planted at the same time more than 70 years ago,’ she continued.
‘It complements our tree and the immediate environment.’
Mrs Rogers was on her way to her yoga class when she noticed arborists had turned up at Mr Evan’s home.
She said: ‘I was all set to go to yoga but my husband saw the arborists arrive, so I changed my plans.
‘I have a lovely purple skipping rope but it was not long enough so my husband brought me some rope instead.
‘There were five arborists there and I think they wanted to physically remove me but realised they wouldn’t be able to.
‘Mr Evans threatened to call the police but I said that would be a terrible waste of police time and it didn’t worry me at all.
‘The arborists called their boss then the man from the council arrived and that’s when I had to stop.’
She added that Mr Evans told her the tree caused a crack in his garage’ but she said that she ‘couldn’t see anything.’
‘The tree has survived all the recent storms so it can’t be that weak,’ Mrs Rogers continued.
‘I tried to save it and I failed. We lost the battle, which is sad.’
Her stance was backed by neighbours Ali and David Cliff, who said it ‘broke our hearts’ to lose the tree.
With her husband Carl’s help, Mrs Rogers used a length of rope to tie herself to the trunk for her impromptu protest
Mrs Cliff said: ‘I’m absolutely devastated our neighbours would consider taking this tree down. It broke our hearts and action needs to be taken to protect the tree.’
Mr Evans said he was ‘disappointed’ that the tree had to be felled and that he was going to have a new tree planted to replaceit.
He said: ‘The tree did not have a preservation order and it was unsafe and was damaging the garage.
‘I tried to get it done last year but we were away and some protest occurred.
‘The work had been booked in for a number of months.
‘It has nothing to do with our dislike of trees, in fact it’s the opposite and we will be planting more to replace it.
‘We had permission to remove it approved from the council.
‘But the amount of abuse I have received from my neighbours is unprecedented. I have never been spoken to like that in my life.’
Dorset Police confirmed they were alerted to Ms Rogers tying herself to her neighbour’s tree, but the incident was resolved before they could attend.
A Dorset Police spokesperson said: ‘We received an initial report at 9.30am on Monday of a woman trespassing at an address off Broad Lane in Bridport.
‘It was further reported the woman had tied herself to a tree at the address.
‘However, the situation was resolved and the woman left.
‘Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of the incident.’
