WHILE the fight to save Felton Common is ongoing, Bristol Tree Forum is having a battle of its own to save ancient trees at Cook’s Farm.

The expansion plans at Bristol Airport do not only encroach on the common but on 24 hectares of long-established agricultural countryside.

The airport is seeking to compulsorily purchase the site where the trees have been growing for centuries

Bristol Tree Forum lodged a detailed objection to the proposal and say the irreplaceable habitat is at risk and that evidence supporting the plans just doesn’t add up.

Two Ash and one Sycamore - the same species of tree felled at Hadrian’s Wall - grow in an ancient hedge on the boundary to the farm and the airport is planning to transplant the trees to the northern edge of the site.

A spokesperson for the Bristol Tree Forum said: “That might sound like a reasonable compromise, but our objections explain why it’s not in careful detail.

“A veteran tree isn’t just an old tree, especially those in long-established hedgerows. It’s a whole ecosystem - cavities, rot, deadwood and fungal growth that specialist insects, fungi and other wildlife depend on and cannot find anywhere else.

“These features take centuries to form. You cannot manufacture them, and you cannot move them.”

The group stresses that the trees are unlikely to survive the transplanting.

Now, the campaigners say further evidence recently published by the airport to back up their application, does exactly the opposite.

The spokesperson continued: “The airport now admits its plans will lose five veteran trees. Its biodiversity spreadsheet puts it plainly: the affected trees ‘comprise a total of 5 ancient/veteran trees… all are in good condition. All of these will be lost.’

“Translocation is now proposed for only three of the five which is, as we set out before, just a plan to kill them slowly rather than a genuine solution.”

North Somerset Council’s own ecological reviewer told the airport that treating translocated veteran trees as ‘retained’ is ‘inappropriate’ and that any veteran tree that cannot be kept where it stands ‘should be considered ‘lost’’.

The airport has now accepted this; a significant admission, the group says. The true scale of irreplaceable-habitat loss was understated when the previous evidence was submitted.

Worse still, the loss of the habitat will not be sufficiently replaced according to the airport’s own evaluation with the trees not accommodated within the biodiversity net gain trading rules.

The group says that national planning policy states that development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats such as veteran trees - there are at least 21 on site - should be refused unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy already exists.

According to the airport, no such compensation exists.

The spokesperson for the group added: “Our position is unchanged. We say these problems must be resolved before the application is decided.

"On the evidence now available, the Council should refuse it. For everyone who cares about Cook’s Farm, its ancient hedgerows and the veteran trees standing in them, this remains the line worth holding."

The airport has been approached for comment.