Boss at Barrow's Abbey House Hotel defends decision to chop down trees without permission

Brian Conroy said the trees at Barrow's Abbey House Hotel were afflicted with ash dieback and that upcoming storms meant they posed a danger to the public.

The operations director was responding after The Mail saw correspondence saying the hotel failed to give the borough council five days' notice of the work. 

Gordon Robson, who works in planning enforcement at the council, told a member of the public in an email that the hotel had issued an 'unreserved apology'.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe the hotel can rely on the statutory defence to cover the unauthorised removal," said Mr Robson. 

"I am satisfied that the hotel have acted in good faith, and they fully acknowledge their failure to comply with the procedure."

Mr Robson said he had spoken to Abbey House's general manager and that 'lessons have been learnt'.

Mr Conroy said that, after the hotel's gardener had initially noticed that particular trees had ash dieback, a survey was carried out by BHA Trees Ltd. 

EXPLANATION: A hotel boss has defended the decision to cut down the trees

He said the trees that posed the greatest risk and needed cutting down were identified. 

"We had to make a call," said Mr Conroy.

"We made a decision before the predicted bad weather.

"What we didn't want was a tree to come down and cause danger to anyone and damage.

"It was brought to our attention by the council that there was a complaint made.

"We agreed that we'd submit planning permission for the rest of the works to be carried out."

Paul Littlewood, who lives in Barrow and is a volunteer at the Woodland Trust, raised the issue of the trees being cut down without authorisation with the council.

He said he felt 'anger' over the actions of the hotel and that summer was the best time to check trees for ash dieback. 

"The main feature of ash dieback is there are no leaves on the tree and the stems are bare," he said. 

A planning application for the felling of 'up to 37' trees at the hotel has now been submitted. The borough council planning portal says a decision is pending.