Appeal to protect Thetford trees from supermarket development

An appeal has been lodged against the removal of trees on a site earmarked for a new supermarket in Thetford.

A planning application is under consideration for a store on the former Thermos/Tulip site on Caxton Way.

But a letter written by former forest officer with the Forestry Commission, Mike Kew, insists six plane trees in the centre of the car park should be protected. He said he and his wife, former PA to the operations director of Thermos, would be “devastated” if they were felled and asked for a tree preservation order to be granted.

A report to go before Breckland officials added: “The space occupied by the trees has not been so far proposed to become anything other than car parking and it would seem gratuitously destructive to remove established and sustainable trees capable of affording landscape maturity to the site.”

The scheme’s applicants have objected to the order, and said the trees “do not offer any significant landscape value”.

The preservation order has been recommended for approval. A decision will be taken by Breckland Council’s appeals committee on April 4.