Save Euston Trees from High Speed 2

At the HS2 quarterly “engagement” meeting Euston Community Representatives Group (ECRG) on 1st December local concerns were brushed aside. For example -
- we say we don’t want noisy works over Christmas again, they respond “but we have planned piledriving in the cutting 24-27 Dec for a long time.”
- we say they can’t start noisy works until they install the promised noise insulation and ventilation. They say they don’t exceed the maximums the law allows - but how did that turn out for the residents in Langdale, Cartmel and Coniston? Their homes became uninhabitable.

On no issue is this more acute than the felling of trees in Euston. You know the benefits of trees for relaxation, health and reducing air pollution, and for the planet. It is all very well to plant small trees in pots on balconies, but we should not be cutting down the mature trees we have. HS2 must “replace” the trees they fell, but we need them to leave us some mature trees.
DEMAND: a map of the proposed sites of replacement trees with safeguarding.

The HS2 Tree Panel was meant to safeguard our community from the unnecessary felling of mature trees, but it has lost its way and no longer follows its own processes.
Since the summer it gives contractors permission to fell for convenience and utilities, trees that are not even in the way of the proposed track, even without surveys.
Look at the awful tree felling in North Gower Street and also Hampstead Rd, where in addition basic health and safety and working hours were not followed.
HS2 officers at ECRG would not listen to this problem either. Specific issues are:

Harrington Street: cutting down 4 young trees because their machinery needed for a couple of days didn’t fit on the pavement. Now it’s because the trench will be so deep it may damage the roots. If I were a tree I would rather take my chances of recovering from root damage than be felled.
DEMAND: leave the Harrington Street trees in place

Euston Square Gardens East: this London Square is to be returned to public use as a park when HS2 goes, so we want as many mature trees as possible, not just saplings in concrete tubs. It is naked land grab to clear the trees for temporary taxi parking. HS2 has already done that to Euston Square Gardens West. Parliament said they must leave the trees along the Euston Road side, and they have agreed to leave the two biggest trees in place.
DEMAND: two biggest trees in the middle section to be preserved on traffic islands
DEMAND: the big trees in the northwest corner to be left in place to take their chances of surviving the build up of ground level around their trunks.

Adelaide Road Woodland: this consists of over 500 trees located on the steep embankment to the east of the nature reserve that Camden Council leases, very close to the amazing Primrose Hill portalsIt is a site of importance for nature conservation (SINC) and is to be restored and returned to Network Rail (NWR). However HS2 want to build a vent shaft for their tunnel there and Parliament has said they can fell 0.58 hectares, around 300 trees. But they want to fell 100 more trees which will make it harder to restore, and they have no BAT LICENCE which may be a crime.
DEMAND: leave the trees in place under the lorry access platform, even if they must be pruned. Do not fell these fifty trees.
DEMAND: leave the trees in place by the disused track, this track is not live and these fifty trees are not a hazard.
DEMAND: apply for licences and carry out current environmental surveys
DEMAND: set up genuine liaison and engagement with local groups including Historical railway groups and Camden Council about the restoration.

Please sign this petition if you support these demands, please circulate your membership if you belong to a group and copy to your friends and family. We need your help. Please.
This is urgent as HS2 will start felling Euston Trees within weeks.