Here I have made a video of the beautiful mature, even ancient, woodland between Headingley Lane and Headingley Castle, and show some of the listed trees which have the small disc markers on them to identify them as having Tree Preservation Orders on them. However, Leeds City Council and the transport authority are about to apply to Parliament for a Transport and Works Order Act, which is effectively a private law, a legal fiction some would say, to sweep away the legal protection for these trees and many others along the route of the proposed NGT trolleybus system so that they can build new roads and expand existing ones. They say that they 'REQUIRE' this land and for these trees to be cut down and destroyed, which is the language used by more than one fascist or totalitarian dictatorship. One of the most perverse things I have heard said about this was by Cllr Neil Walshaw at the Planning Review day on the 25th June this year, when he said that he thought that the Council should do something 'really imaginative' with the trunks of the felled trees, and make adventure playgrounds with them for children to play on. Personally, I think the most imaginative thing to do with these trees would be to let them continue to live and grow, and continue building the ecosystem that they have contributed to for the last century and more, where bats and owls live, endangered species which also have their habitat protected by law. I also talk to Lorraine who leases the meadow behind the trees and who manages five horses on the old sheep grange of Kirkstall Abbey, and gain an insight into her views on the devastation of the environment which the Council and Metro are seeking to carry out. For this she has been labelled a 'Taliban' by the forces of 'progress'.

• published: 22 Aug 2013
• views: 171