I attended the long promised felling of the Trelawney trees, I have previously attended the meeting with Phil Mason the council’s strategic director for sustainable growth, who met with “Stop the Chop” organisers as well as concerned citizens to discuss the felling, though after all the discussion had subsided we reached the point we arrived at: the trees were coming down.
I woke up at 6:45 and headed from Killigrew street and arrived around 7 o’clock I was met by a police and security cordon who had sealed off the area in anticipation, which was expected as Mr. Mason had announced that there would be a police presence on account of the previous protests at the other attempted felling of the tree. Many of the security were private hires rather than the police with police presence fairly low, with two liaison officers taking the majority of the conversation with protestors.
Newman after attempting to breach the barricade
When I came round down Woodlane to the bottom of Trelawney I found a large group of protestors standing against the barricades and attempting to talk to some of the guards, though most of it was overlooked. Occasionally an argument would break out between a protestor and security guard but they were quickly moved along into another spot behind the barrier. Earlier on in the day Deborah Newman had tried to break through the barrier and was allegedly picked up and dropped by a Security guard with some capturing the event on a livestream the Police force claimed Ms. Newman “fell to the floor.” The matter was recorded in a complaint by protestors due to be investigated.
After some time Ms.Newman attempted to get through the barrier again only to be stopped by guards immediately. There was a constant back and forth between stop the chop organisers and the liaison officers, who expressed their lack of personal connection to the tumult between stop the chop and Cornwall council and stressed they were only doing their jobs whilst repeating Mr. Mason’s statements on the legality of the whole proceeding.
Overall there was little the protestors could do except record and express their discontent as the rain came down on a gloomy day and the trees were slowly felled piece by piece, potentially bringing an end to this year long saga, with the council ultimately removing the trees and “Stop the Chop” left feeling disheartened.