Laudator Temporis Acti

Amelia Wynne, "Homeowner is fined £60,000 because he deliberately damaged 90-year-old protected cedar tree on street outside his house forcing the council to fell it - after his requests to chop it down were twice rejected by authority," Daily Mail (December 22, 2019):

A homeowner who damaged a 90-year-old tree so badly it had to be felled has been fined over £60,000.

Stephen Lawrence, from Chelmsford, Essex, had made two applications to the council to fell the mature protected cedar, but both were refused by the council.

Despite warnings, he stripped the bark off the lower trunk, according to the council, and holes were drilled into the wood.

Chelmsford City Council said the damage was so extensive it had to be felled - and took him to court.

Hat tip: Eric Thomson, who adds:

I think the 'lex talionis' requires that a person found guilty of debarking a tree and causing damage sufficiently serious for the tree then to require felling, should not be given a mere fine, even of £60,000. He should be debarked himself, i.e. flayed alive, or failing that, hanged from the branches of the aggrieved tree or, failing that, crucified on a cross made from its timber. Rhadamanthine Lord Braxfield would have meted out such a sentence without batting an eyelid.

Labels: arboricide