Greenwich street trees still face cutback – despite residents’ campaign

Much-loved trees in a street near Greenwich station still face being cut back after residents began a campaign to stop them being chopped down.

Hyde Housing applied to Greenwich Council for permission to fell the trees in Straightsmouth and in a nearby courtyard  last month. The housing association said the trees were damaging a boundary wall with a railway line and could cause future damage.

The original plans came despite neighbours saying that they were an important part of the narrow street, off the busy Greenwich High Road, and provided them and other residents with privacy.

While Hyde is now planning to cut down the trees in the courtyard because they pose a threat to the railway, it now plans to fell only one tree in Straightsmouth and cut back the rest, and will talk to Network Rail about replacing the boundary wall with a fence.

After Creekside councillor Calum O’Byrne Mulligan intervened, he and residents met a Hyde representative on Friday. The residents fear that rather than just trimming back dead wood, Hyde will give the trees a more severe cut-back and ruin the view they have enjoyed for years.

The residents and the Labour councillor want Hyde to withdraw the application – which so far it has refused to do.

Marny Godden, who lives opposite the trees with her partner Tom Turner, said she believed the trees had been there for between 30 and 60 years.

“They’re in good condition,” she said before Hyde announced its concessions. “They’re lovely trees. I’ve seen a robin in there, there’s nests in those trees. So that’s why we’re all concerned.

“These trees mean a lot to me, because they lift my spirits. You can hear the birds from five o’clock in the morning, and it’s lovely to be a Londoner and hear birds.

“It’s soul-nourishing. I know that sounds a bit hippy, but that’s how I feel, I feel better for them.”

Turner said the trees provided privacy for new flats built recently above Greenwich post office. “They’re all modern builds, so they’ve got big windows and no curtains,” he said. “They need privacy from us and we need privacy from them because we face each other.”

Another neighbour, Eren Ozden, an environmental engineer, said the trees made him feel “at home” after moving to London from Istanbul four years ago. “We feel like we’re living in a nice environment,” he said. “They block the noise and the birds are amazing. Their singing in the morning is beautiful.”

Godden said she thought Hyde was exaggerating the damage done by the trees, and had not properly consulted residents before putting the application in. “We think they’re taking shortcuts, basically,” she said.

While Hyde has now said it will cut back most of the trees on Straightsmouth, the application to chop them down remains in place – and residents fear they will be damaged anyway.

Turner told The Greenwich Wire on Friday that Hyde had said “at least one and half metres” would be cut from the trees – but he feared that in practice, that would be far more. 

He added: “You know what’ll happen when the foresters come in – they’ll just get cut down to half the size.”

Speaking after the meeting on Friday, O’Byrne Mulligan said: “I’m very disappointed that Hyde still appears intent on proceeding with the current application, even with the welcome amendments to protect trees that run along the street. 

“I continue to urge Hyde to withdraw the application, and resubmit in a way that can allow not only greater resident engagement, but also the opportunity for a full planning process once the local planning committee has been reconstituted after the council’s annual general meeting.”

Hyde has not responded to a request for comment.

📩 Follow The Greenwich Wire on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn  or Threads. You can also sign up for WhatsApp alerts – or subscribe to our emails through the blue box above.