At the heart of the small city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, a Sycamore Gap-style tree tragedy could soon unfold. An £8m development around Ripon Cathedral threatens ten mature trees and one veteran beech, vital to urban biodiversity, with the chop.

Only, it isn’t profiteering housing developers or a chainsaw-happy council hell-bent on tearing down these boughs.

No – it’s the Church of England spearheading the scheme set to wreck a precious city-centre green lung.

So, the Canary explored the key issues with Ripon resident-turned Save the Trees campaigner Jenni Holman. Moreover, following our interview, and coinciding with Easter weekend and the spring equinox, local people protested against the ecocidal project.

This is part one of a two article series looking at Ripon Cathedral’s controversial proposal.

Ripon Cathedral: planning to rip down mature trees

In January 2023, the Church of England submitted a planning application to build new facilities the size of a small supermarket adjacent to Ripon Cathedral. Specifically, it is seeking permission to build a new song school, storage space, office rooms, toilets, and refectory (cafe) on 730 square metres of council-owned public green space.

However, local people have launched fierce opposition to the project. Currently, over 2,000 local people and visitors to Ripon have signed a paper petition to reject it. Meanwhile, statutory consultees – including Ripon City Council, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), and the Woodland Trust – have also objected to the Cathedral’s plans.

What’s more, the planning process itself has been mired in controversies. Residents have called out the “sham” of a public consultation and the circumstances surrounding an extension which both the council and cathedral have yet to explain. Significantly, some have voiced their concern that the application may have been all stitched up from the get-go.

Biodiverse veteran tree slated for felling

Primarily, residents and consultees alike have objected to the application on account of a veteran beech tree that the Cathedral has slated for felling.

Forestry England defines a veteran tree as a tree of:

particular interest because of its age, size, condition and history. Veteran trees have a large trunk for their species, along with other characteristics including large cavities and decay holes, fungi growing on the trunk, and character in its shape and form. These trees are important biologically, culturally, and aesthetically. They contribute a huge amount to the conservation of forest biodiversity and come with rich cultural and historical value.

Notably, the Woodland Trust has identified the Ripon Cathedral veteran beech tree in its Ancient Tree Inventory. Under national planning policy, developers aren’t permitted to fell ancient or veteran trees unless there are “wholly exceptional circumstances” for doing so.

And while local campaigners recognise the Cathedral’s needs for a number of the new facilities, they have disputed that these warrant “exceptional circumstances” sufficient to destroy the prominent city centre veteran.

So, in order to satisfy national and local planning policies, the Cathedral would need to demonstrate that it has exhausted all viable alternative options to avoid the loss of this “irreplaceable habitat”.

However, multiple statutory consultees have stated that the Cathedral has failed to do exactly that. This included the council’s Head of Parks and Environmental Services Alison Wilson. In her January 2023 response, she argued that:

The documentation states that different options have been investigated and discounted however doesn’t clearly evidence why they have been discounted. In my view, thorough investigation into potential use of existing building/premises located close to the cathedral (owned privately or already part of the cathedral portfolio) should be exhausted before the current application proposals are progressed.

No alternatives?

Meanwhile, the council’s principal ecologist Dan McAndrew has also slammed the proposal. McAndrew objected to the application in February 2023, on the grounds that he did no accept that:

there is no possible alternative location or configuration of the layout of the proposed building, which could avoid the loss of the veteran beech tree, T14, which I view as an unnecessary loss of ‘irreplaceable habitat’. In my view, it ought to be possible for the applicant to devise a solution, involving the reconfiguration of the building or its location which would enable T14 to be retained.

Moreover, he roundly rejected the reasoning the Cathedral put forward to rule out an alternative site for the development. Specifically, the Cathedral had considered its own land in the stone mason’s yard nearby. It had partly ruled this location out due to the mature trees at this site. However, McAndrew argued that:

While, the applicant points out that development of the stone mason’s yard, for example, as an alternative location would also result in the loss of some mature trees, it would not result in the unacceptable loss of a veteran tree. In order to demonstrate that there may be “wholly exceptional reasons” which justify the loss of the tree T14, the applicant must therefore demonstrate convincingly that there is no acceptable alternative solution.

Both the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Woodland Trust have stood firm in their objection to the project. The two conservation non-profits have maintained that the Cathedral must seek an alternative which avoids felling the veteran tree.

Alongside the veteran beech, the Cathedral will also rip up ten other notable trees. The Woodland Trust noted that one of these is a:

sizeable sycamore, that given time and space may become a future veteran

Ripon Cathedral: “disingenuous” reasoning

Nonetheless, despite the numerous objections, the Cathedral has largely doubled-down on its proposal.

In July 2023, it submitted multiple documents detailing its reasoning for ruling out a number of alternative locations. But a group of local residents have continued to call out the plans and the Cathedral’s “disingenuous” exploration of alternatives.

The Canary spoke to Ripon resident Jenni Holman, who started the petition and ensuing Save the Trees campaign to protect the veteran beech. Holman explained to the Canary that the Save the Trees campaigners have put forward a number of suggestions throughout the process.

In particular, the campaigners have acknowledged the need for certain facilities, such as upgraded and accessible toilets, but have questioned the argument for others. Crucially, they’ve highlighted that the Cathedral has failed to explore alternatives that involve scaling back its project.

In one plan they put forward, Holman told the Canary that this alternative would “mean the loss of perhaps five or six trees behind it” but that:

It’s a compromise we’re prepared to make.

Vitally, their suggestions would spare the veteran Beech from destruction. On top of this, Holman and others have also highlighted that the Cathedral owns viable land and building stock it could use for these purposes. Instead, the current project seeks to swallow up a pocket of council-owned green space, which Holman argued:

belongs to the people.

Hell-bent on ecological destruction for profit

Ostensibly, the Cathedral appears hell-bent on ramming through the proposals without compromise. Holman and other campaigners think they might know why. Notably, campaigners have raised what they perceive as the profit-making motives behind this.

For one, as Holman articulated to the Canary, the Cathedral has persisted in the plan in its entirety. Particularly, this includes building a 80-seat refectory. Holman explained that the campaigners feel that this business side of the annex proposal is not essential. And it has not gone unnoticed to them that the Cathedral hasn’t offered to reduce the scope of its development.

Additionally, Ripon Civic Society has also rejected the plans, partly on this basis. Specifically, it has argued that the refectory could in fact draw business away from the town.

Next, in an open letter from February that a number of campaigners shared with the press, they argued that:

The claim that every other option has been considered and proved impossible, is disingenuous.

Specifically, they detailed that the Cathedral had purportedly dismissed the use of its own land and building so that it could:

use this for future residential development and bring in income.

Therefore, campaigners noted that alternatives were “not impossible – just not desirable” to the Cathedral and its developers.

A “sham” of a consultation from Ripon Cathedral

On top of this, the Cathedral’s conduct has only compounded the campaigners’ feeling that it is not engaging with alternatives in good faith.

Instead, campaigners have branded the Cathedral’s consultation process a “sham”. Specifically, in January, the council implemented a “pause” on the planning proposal. According to a statement by the dean of Ripon Cathedral, the Cathedral negotiated this to enable “opportunities for additional consultation” with the residents of Ripon.

However, as Holman explained to the Canary:

they paused the planning application in January to – we thought – seek a compromise and we thought a bit more consultation. But you can go into the Cathedral – usually at set times and speak to people, and that’s it unfortunately

Alongside this, she noted that a questionnaire the Cathedral has put out for the extended consultation period is riddled with “leading” questions. Moreover, Holman and a number of other Ripon residents have also pointed out that the new public consultation:

consists of: no significant changes to the original submission; newly formatted leaflets with no new information; 70% of ‘drop ins’ during the working day and a lack of record keeping from Cathedral staff of comments and suggestions by the public.

In tandem, campaigners have also questioned North Yorkshire Council over its role in facilitating the “pause”. In a separate letter to the councils planning officer, they queried why the council allowed this de facto extension on the planning application in the first place:

We realise that the application, as submitted, was very inadequate and needed considerable amendment/additional information, however we suggest that you have been more than generous in the help you have given the developers and the time you have allowed for further details to be submitted. How is it then possible that a further five months ‘pause’ has been necessary/allowed?

As it stands, the council hasn’t offered up a response. Ultimately, North Yorkshire Council will preside over the outcome of the planning application. But one Save the Trees campaigner has interrogated the impartiality of council in this specific proposal.

Writing for Yorkshire Bylines, Brian McHugh highlighted the fact that the Cathedral’s plans involve building on North Yorkshire Council-owned public green space. Crucially, he noted that this means that:

There appears to exist a ‘memorandum of understanding’ suggesting, in principle, that the council would sell the land to the cathedral at full market value for the purpose of the proposed annex build and that the cathedral agreed that they would buy the land in the event that the planning application was approved by the council.

This could create an invidious situation, where the party deciding on the application has already agreed to sell the land in question to the applicant.

In other words, the pre-application discussions and potential memorandum of understanding might prejudice the council towards approving the proposal.

Protest to protect the trees

Despite all this, Ripon residents have persevered in their campaign to protect the veteran tree. They’ve held multiple protests against the controversial plans. First, in November over a hundred people gathered at the site of the proposed development. As Yorkshire Bylines reported, protesters stretched crime tape:

between the proposed affected area to symbolise the ecological ‘crime’ of removing veteran healthy trees

Then, on Saturday 30 March they staged their latest demonstration against the ecocidal project. Again, over a 100 Save the Trees campaigners turned out to march on the Cathedral:

Protesters stood in a line across the public green space to mark out the scale of the Cathedral’s proposed annex:

Following this, they marched into the city centre with placards and handed out leaflets about the controversial project:

After 15 months of the Cathedral’s persistent plan to tear down the veteran beech, the Save the Trees campaigners have stood steadfast in their opposition to it. In Ripon, residents have shown the Church of England’s nature-wrecking development is – almost literally – barking up the wrong tree.

The Canary contacted Ripon Cathedral and North Yorkshire Council for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Featured image and additional images via Jenni Holman/Save the Trees campaigners

By Hannah Sharland

This post was originally published on Canary.