Shoreham Poplar Front campaigners 'winterise' base camp as watch over tree continues

The Shoreham Poplar Front have occupied a tree and surrounding land between the Duke of Wellington Pub and the former Civic Centre site, on Brighton Road, since August.

Hyde Housing says the tree will have to go to make way for its 159-flat development, which was given planning permission in March.

The continued occupation follows on from a protest last month when hundreds took to the streets to call for the tree to be saved.

A petition to save the ‘Shoreham Poplar’ has reached almost 3,400 signatures and the SPF says it has raised £2,400 via crowd-funding.

SPF spokesperson Darcy Harrison says that redesigning the housing scheme to incorporate the poplar would be ‘child’s play’ and claims the developer still ‘refuses to engage’ with the group.

“We now have over 100 local people taking part in the daytime tree protector rota and 24/7 security cameras,” Mr Harrison said.

“We are working with a professional architect to develop an alternative design that shows how the tree could be saved without any reduction in the number of dwellings.

“This will be ready in a couple of weeks ”

The Hyde group claims that keeping the tree would mean losing 12 socially rented homes.

Andy Hunt, lead development manager, said: “[Hyde] care passionately about the environment, and we’ll be planting up to 15 trees along the Brighton Road and Ham Road boundaries of our site, which will improve the landscape and support wildlife.”