1,000 signatures reached
To: SOUTH RIBBLE BOROUGH COUNCIL/ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
SAVE THE ROYAL LIMES IN WALTON le DALE
Tell the council - don’t cut down the royal lime trees in Walton Le Dale!
Why is this important?
Protecting Preston’s Royal Lime Trees: A Call for Transparency and Common Sense
For more than a century, the Royal Lime Trees on Victoria Road have stood as a living memorial to the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary. They are part of Preston’s heritage, part of Walton‑le‑Dale’s identity, and part of our landscape. Like the vast majority of residents in the area, I have grown up and known these trees all my life - they are highly revered and held in great esteem by us all.
Yet the Environment Agency’s current plans for the Preston Flood Alleviation Scheme would see all 21 trees cut down.
As a retired specialist in piling and geotechnical engineering, I have spent months trying to understand why. What I have found is deeply concerning:
- The EA has not produced any structural or geotechnical evidence showing that the existing embankment or retaining wall is failing.
- They have not carried out the hydraulic modelling needed to understand the consequences of allowing the embankment to collapse — including risks to nearby homes.
- The soil investigations disclosed so far are insufficient and incomplete, falling short of national standards.
- The proposed design is far more intrusive than necessary, involving an 18‑month road closure and the construction of a 6‑metre‑high concrete secant piled wall — a method the EA has already struggled with elsewhere in Preston.
- Crucially, several safer, cheaper, and less disruptive alternatives exist, but these have not been properly assessed.
At the South Ribble planning meeting, councillors made clear they did not want to approve a scheme that destroys the Royal Limes. They only did so because they believed the EA’s claim that “there is no other way.”
The evidence shows that this is simply not true.
I am calling on our MP to request an independent review of the Victoria Road design. Preston deserves flood defences that are effective, environmentally responsible, and based on sound engineering — not a scheme that destroys heritage, disrupts communities, and ignores viable alternatives.
The Royal Limes have stood for 112 years. They deserve better than this.
How it will be delivered
To The Chif Executive of South Ribble Borough Council and The Area Director for The Envronment Agency Cumbria & Lancashire.
