A developer was taken to court and ordered to pay thousands of pounds for damaging a protected tree during building works in Kingswood. South Gloucestershire Council said the sycamore tree eventually had to be removed after a trench was dug and the roots were cut.
Andrew Cake, owner of Acton Homes Ltd based in Woodlands Lane, Bradley Stoke, pleaded guilty to damaging a tree under a tree preservation order (TPO) when he appeared at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Monday (February 20). The 61-year-old was ordered to pay a fine of £5,600, along with £1,423 in costs, and a £2,000 victim surcharge, making a total of £9,023.
The court heard that on July 20 last year, the council’s arboriculture team became aware of a report relating to a planning application at Spring Hill in Kingswood for an attached house and associated work. The report referenced the digging of a trench and the roots of a protected sycamore tree being cut.
