'Untreatable' fungal decay in 200-year-old Northampton tree could lead to 'catastrophic failure'

A borough council report claims that a 200-year-old Northampton tree that has been at the centre of a heated debate cannot be saved.

Earlier this week, a planning committee voted to cut down a mature horse chestnut in the car park of Abington Dental Surgery on Billing Road.

The plan was met with over 120 letters of objection from neighbours and residents who called on the borough council to "save" the 200-year-old tree.

Now, a report says the tree cannot be saved in any case because of 'untreatable' fungal infection.

The report comes from a study by contractor MPL Arboculturalists, who the dentists' operator, Mr Hiten Patel, commissioned to examine the tree prior to making the application.

The committee on Tuesday heard: "The fungus [Ganoderma Australe] was a localised white rot that would result in the full degradation of the lignin in the cells at ground level leaving the cells as a spongy mass.

"The fungal infection cannot be treated and when advanced the decay can result in a catastrophic brittle failure of the stem base. If this were to happen, the whole of the tree would therefore fail.

"In summary, the tree [is] in a poor and declining condition, host to a progressive and un-treatable pathogenic fungus that would destroy the tissues at the tree’s base resulting in a total and catastrophic failure at ground level at some unknown future time."

The decision also meant removing a borough council Tree Preservation Order put in place by the borough council.

A condition was made to replace the 200-year-old tree with a replacement at least 3.5m tall.