CAMPAIGNERS have called for the planned cutting down of a hundred-year-old Horse Chestnut tree to be scrapped to 'save Cowley's roots'.

The distinctive Between Towns Road tree is due to be felled as part of work to create 38 flats on the former Murco garage site, with a report stating it was in 'poor structural condition'.

But residents, as well as city councillor David Henwood, maintain the tree has important links to the community and can be saved.

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An online petition calling for a Tree Protection Order to be put in place to preserve the tree has now been signed by more than 440 people.

Mr Henwood said the tree was originally planted by the Gibbons Family who occupied the site for decades and ran a bakery there until the land was turned into a Murco petrol station in the 1970s.

He said the tree is believed to be more than a century old.

An arboricultural report, looking at all trees on the site and carried out as part of the initial planning application, said the chestnut ‘exhibits clear signs of extensive internal decay’ and had most likely been ‘historically heavily pruned’ as a means of reducing its chance of ‘significant structural failure and partial collapse’.

It added: “Taking account of the high value target area surrounding this tree coupled with its poor structural condition its long-term retention must be considered unlikely and will only be achievable if the tree is repeatedly heavily pruned as a means of containing its overall size."

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But Mr Henwood insisted efforts to save the 12m-tree would be worth it, explaining: “Horse chestnuts have been assessed as ‘vulnerable’ to extinction in Europe, so it is imperative we make the city council rethink the felling of this particular tree, not just in terms of Cowley’s heritage, but also the bigger picture of protecting a species from extinction.

"We want to see more board leafed chestnut trees being planted, to develop our heritage and protect our environment.

"Surely, if the tree's only problem, is one of physical shape, is that justification to fell it? Too often we desire to design nature, nature simply won’t tolerate or survive this type of human intervention.”

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Cowley historian Roseanne Butler, who is also fighting to save the tree, said: “It is excellent young saplings are being planted in Oxford, however, mature trees are excellent oxygen factories, and need protecting from developers.”

She added: “I am so angry, and can also imagine how beautiful it would be for future residents on the site to live next to this tree when the candles of bloom arrive in spring.”

But an Oxford City Council spokesperson said the tree had already been investigated for protection and found unsuitable, because the damage to it meant large branches were at risk of breaking and falling. 

They added: “Our expert arboriculturalist inspected the tree in May 2015 – long before the redevelopment of the site was proposed – with a view to protecting it with a Tree Preservation Order, but concluded this was not appropriate because of the tree’s poor structural condition and short life expectancy.

“If the tree was retained we would have to heavily prune, or pollard, it repeatedly to ensure the public is safe from falling branches. This would remove most of the branches, and dramatically reduce the leaf cover, and there would be a high risk that just the first pollarding would kill the tree due to its age and poor condition. We pollard many trees in other locations across the city, but these have often been managed as pollards since an earlier age and are in better condition, and usually they are species such as willow that respond better to pollarding than horse chestnut.

“If the horse chestnut was in a stronger condition and had a long life expectancy, we would have designed the new housing development – which features new 38 homes, including new social housing – around the tree.

“We are planning to plant new trees as part of the development, which comes on top of the 2,000 trees we planted with community groups in November as part of Tree Week. Oxford has 248,200 trees – which, at nearly two trees per person, is double the ratio for London.

“Oxford City Council alone owns, monitors the health of and looks after 431 horse chestnut trees within Oxford, including a veteran example in Headington Hill Park that has branches that have rooted where they touch the ground.”

The petition is available online here.

Planning permission for the former Murco garage site, which is owned by the city council, was granted in May.

The application had proved controversial due to it being a car-free development, with fears cars would 'flood' nearby roads.