Horndon-on-the-Hill group celebrates victory for 100-year-old oak
Campaigners battling to save a 100-year-old oak tree celebrated after councillors refused to withdraw its legal protection.Concerns had been raised about the 60-ft (18-m) tree causing subsidence at properties in Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex.However, Thurrock Council's planning committee was applauded as members defied a report and did not lift a tree preservation order (TPO).Resident Julian Vereker said the decision had "delighted" many people.
The holm oak, an evergreen broadleaf tree, is rooted in the grounds of a listed building near Saffron Close.
Planning officers told the council it could be liable for £45,000 costs to underpin the tree, while an engineer warned that figure could rise to £180,000.In their report, the engineer said a nearby affected property was in danger of "imminent collapse".But councillors refused to lift the TPO, saying its value to residents outweighed the risk of future costs.Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting, Mr Vereker said it was "a victory for what is right"."We all want to recognise our local councillors for being brave and doing the right thing in the face of nasty intimidation."
'Iconic'
The tree survived a previous bid to fell it eight years ago over concerns about subsidence.During the latest debate, resident Peter Woodard said the tree was "iconic" in the village."Do not be like the despised vandals who cut down the tree from the Sycamore Gap," he urged councillors.Conservative councillor Jacqui Maney also said felling the tree would have been morally and ethically "appalling".
Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
37 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The ‘experts' you've never heard of inspiring Rachel Reeves's disastrous economic policy
A little like the Chagos Islands giveaway and, more recently, the apparent Gibraltar sell out, it's almost impossible to work out the motivations behind each and every idiotic decision this Labour Government takes. There's a palpable sense of incredulity spreading across Britain as the Prime Minister and Chancellor continue to insist that everything is going swimmingly despite most key markers showing precisely the opposite is true. Take the economy. In Wednesday's Spending Review, Rachel Reeves boasted that she had 'wasted no time' removing the barriers to growth. Less than 24 hours later, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that UK GDP had shrunk by 0.3 per cent in April. Labour continues to splurge taxpayers' hard-earned cash despite the national debt sitting at around 96 per cent of GDP, the budget deficit more doubling in the past seven years, and public spending being on a par with the profligate Labour government of the 1970s, which almost bankrupted the country. Back then, taxes as a share of GDP were around 33 per cent. Forecasts suggest that, by 2027, they could reach 37.7 per cent. Unemployment is at its highest level in four years, UK payrolls have lost 276,000 employees since the autumn Budget, and a millionaire is reportedly leaving the UK every 45 minutes under Labour. Still, no one in the Cabinet appears able to rule out further tax rises, with Paul Johnson, the outgoing chief of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) concluding that 'council tax bills look set to rise at their fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05.' Who is advising Reeves on tax policy, and her relentless assault on our wallets? Readers may not have heard of Arun Advani and Andy Summers, but these little known academics may have been the inspiration for Labour's seemingly never-ending tax grab. They run the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax), which some credit for Labour's farm tax. Advani, who is associate professor in the economics department at the University of Warwick, called for inheritance tax 'loopholes' on farms to be scrapped in two reports for the Institute for Fiscal Studies, as well as writing a further report for CenTax making the same arguments for changes to both Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) last October. After Advani boasted at the Labour Party Conference that he was 'optimistic' because the Labour government is 'genuinely listening' to his ideas, Reeves announced in the Budget that the availability of 100 per cent relief for agricultural and business property would be capped at £1 million. So far, so predictable, you may argue. What's the harm in tapping up Left-wing think tanks for radical tax ideas? Do Conservative governments not rely on the research of free market institutes? Well, some have alleged the Treasury relied solely on CenTax's projection that the changes would raise £520 million, without doing its own calculations. As it conceded in response to a Freedom of Information request: 'H M Treasury does not hold a disaggregated cost projection for the revenue raised from the measure announced at Autumn Budget 2024 to restrict these reliefs. This is a combined policy across the reliefs, rather than separate policies for each relief.' Even more problematically, the £520 million figure has been challenged. The OBR itself said it was uncertain how much would be raised as a result of behavioural responses, whilst CBI Economics calculates that the new tax on both family firms and farms will actually cost the Treasury £1.9 billion over the next five years. Advani claimed that only around 500 farms would be affected by the tax. As the Adam Smith Institute points out, however, 'the government's much-quoted '500' a year is really 15,000 a generation.' The true number of farms could be more than 40,000. Separate research, commissioned by Ashbridge Partners, found that one in 10 farmers surveyed said they will face an IHT bill of more than £1 million due to the inheritance tax hike, with 31 per cent expecting to pay more than £500,000. Why didn't Labour listen? Treasury minister James Murray, who referenced back in 2022 how many Zoom meetings he'd held with Dr Summers, even hosted CenTax's official launch in Parliament last November when he declared his desire 'to make sure that collaboration between CenTax, Treasury and HMRC continues for many years into the future.' Advani and Summers also influenced Labour's pledge to scrap non dom status with Treasury ministers again seeming to unquestioningly swallow their claim that it would raise £3.2 billion, a figure repeatedly cited by the Government. The trouble is, that number was also based on some misguided premises, perhaps including Advani and Summers' quite ludicrous prediction that out of 70,000 non-doms, only 77 would leave. As other economists later pointed out, the projection did not take into account the impact of abolishing non-dom inheritance tax protections. Even the OBR assumed that the changes would likely lead to a loss of 25 per cent of non-doms with trusts, which could cost the UK more than £12 billion during the course of the parliament. Still the Government swallowed the £3.2 billion figure hook line and sinker despite some now estimating that 10 per cent of non-doms may have already left the UK. A report by the CEBR predicts the ongoing exodus could reach 40 per cent – costing the Treasury a self-defeating £7.1 billion over this parliament. This combined with the £1.9 billion revenue lost as a result of the farm and family firm tax could mean the Government is down £9 billion thanks to listening to these nitwits. CenTax also wrongly predicted that increasing the tax rate on carried interest to 45 per cent would raise additional revenue of £0.8 billion per year. Labour settled on 32 per cent – but a January 2025 estimate by the OBR suggests that only £100 million will be raised and since then Reeves has watered it down. Labour claim to be a 'party of business'. So why are they seemingly listening to two economists who are laying the intellectual groundwork for an expansion in taxation that could come to look like Corbynism on steroids.
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
The BBC World Service debate: Is Donald Trump making the world safer or more dangerous?
Update: Date: 18:45 BST Title: The BBC World Service debate: Is Donald Trump making the world safer or more dangerous? Content: Lyse DoucetChief international correspondent Hello and welcome to the BBC World Service debate, live from the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House in London. Events are moving quickly. We're recording our discussion as tensions escalate sharply in the Middle East and beyond after Israel attacked Iran, and Tehran retaliated. President Trump promised to be a peacemaker - can he end this confrontation? He also boasted he would end the wars in Ukraine, as well as Gaza. He has put peace talks on the table in many places, and pushed his allies in many regions to take more responsibility for their own security. But his critics say his approach to diplomacy is reckless and chaotic, and so far the dealmaker in chief has not delivered a deal. Is Donald Trump making the world safer or more dangerous? Lyse will be joined by a panel of guests to discuss the escalating tensions in the Middle East, and the rapidly changing international landscape during President Trump's second presidency. Watch the debate live at the top of this page from 19:00 BST (18:00 GMT).
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Sir Keir's Italian love affair
World leaders gathering at the G7 next week in Canada tend to have a soft spot for Italy's Giorgia Meloni, and it seems that Sir Keir Starmer is no exception. When ministers receive gifts worth more than £140, they can choose to pay the difference or hand them over to the Exchequer. Government documents reveal that Starmer – a devoted Gunners fan – chose not to stump up the cash to pay for a gifted replica trophy and football shirt he was given by legendary Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. Yet he paid for a hamper costing more than £140 handed to him by Meloni in April. Truly a new rapporto speciale has begun. The PM and Queenie Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer kindly offered me condolences after our beloved 18-year-old terrier Queenie died this week. 'I was sorry to hear about your dog,' he said, before I interviewed him for GB News. 'Poor old Larry is not looking so good this morning – he is 17,' the PM added, referring to Downing Street's legendary cat. Keep going Larry! Pint of the usual Nigel Farage has popped into the Talbot pub in Blackpool – the UK's first ever pub devoted to his party Reform UK – to have a pint of its new Pilsner lager called Remainer Tears (£2.20 a pint). Pub co-owner Pete Flynn says: 'It refreshes the parts that other beers cannot get to.' The pub has been offering a meal deal of gammon, egg and chips, with a pint of Remainer Tears, for a fiver. A true Brexit dividend! Jail break Claire Hanna, the SDLP MP, billed the taxpayer for a visit to a jail-themed escape room in April last year, at a cost of £240. The activity centre – Belfast's Prison Island – is apparently 'like an escape room only better', offering 31 prison-themed challenges in purpose- built cells, requiring a combination of 'intellectual, technical and physical skills'. It was presumably a team building exercise but is this a solution to the prison overcrowding crisis? Tony's sliding doors Ex-Spandau Ballet lead singer Tony Hadley has revealed what he would be if he weren't a pop star. 'Orthopaedic surgeon,' he tells Devon Life magazine. 'I'm not squeamish – I even wanted to watch my own knee op. But I wasn't good enough at maths to do it.' Brutal end Actor Robert Glenister was inspired to tread the boards when he saw the great Alan Howard's starring role in a 1978 production of Coriolanus by the Royal Shakespeare Company, at London's Aldwych Theatre. 'Later on I was lucky enough to work with him twice,' he says. 'The first time was when I murdered him in an episode of Midsomer Murders. I said: 'You're one of the reasons I wanted to become an actor.' And then whacked him over the head.' Sleep's dance Former dancer Wayne Sleep has shed light on when he taught Princess Diana to dance to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl at the Royal Opera House in London in December 1985. 'When I first met her at the Palace she was in a pink leotard, leg warmers and jazz shoes,' he said at Crazy Coqs cabaret in Piccadilly. 'When we did the dance for Charles, I told her she would have to bow to the Royal Box and she said 'I am not bowing to him. He is my hubby.' I had to bow. As we went off stage she said 'You won't get your OBE that way'.' Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave a copy of her Commons speech to her opposite number Mel Stride before the Spending Review this week, as is custom. Sadly for Stride, much of it was redacted, presumably for reasons of market sensitivity. Is this how to hide a fiscal black hole? The Sex Pistol of politics John Lydon – formerly Johnny Rotten in the punk band the Sex Pistols says that Donald Trump is 'probably a bad man' but he is what the US needs. He told the The Michael Anthony Show podcast: 'The business of America is broke and you need a businessman in to fix it... If you lived the past four years in America, the Democrat party ran the country into the ground. Trump is a wrecking ball. You might loathe him as a human being but he shakes up the s----dom. Business as usual is not working. I said years ago that Trump is the Sex Pistols of politics.'
