Councillors slam decision to cut down trees for exclusive Derbyshire home

A South Derbyshire District Council meeting on Tuesday (April 7) saw councillors narrowly approve retrospective plans for a large house which a developer had already started building, illegally cutting a slew of protected trees down in the process.

After a heated discussion, councillors voted along party lines with Labour members approving the scheme off High Street, Melbourne, by seven votes to six against – Conservative, Independent and Lib Dem.

Cllr Amy Wheelton, Independent, who voted against the plans, said the decision was “quite unbelievable”, telling the meeting: “We just don’t protect trees at this council.”

Council officials told the meeting that “prosecution proceedings are being considered” into the illegal felling of 16 trees on the site.

In 2023, the council had approved a three-bed detached house on land to the rear of 21 Market Place, which borders the Lothian Gardens play area, Melbourne URC Church and a public footpath.

Work from Fontenay, registered in Loughborough, started in 2024 without permission and without keeping to the approved plans, including increasing the size and position of the house, and unlawfully cutting down 16 of 25 protected trees, with planning enforcement bringing works to a halt.

In June 2025, the district council rejected a new plan for the site, keeping the house in the spot it had already been largely built in, in the centre, as opposed to the approved eastern corner, increasing the home to a four-bed property.

The developer had asked to replant four additional trees.

The new application before the council sought to replant a total of 55 new trees, ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 metres in height, and 150 hedge plants.

Further planting will also be carried out on a “habitat bank” in Nether Heage, 22 miles away in mid-Derbyshire.

However, they want to keep the new placement of the house and its increased size.

Cllr Matthew Gotheridge, Conservative, said: “I appreciate the efforts in terms of the replanting but I don’t think we should be rewarding bad behaviour.”

Cllr Wheelton said: “When we visited the site I could not believe it, the protected trees have had their roots sliced in half.

“The house could not have been built where it is now (before the trees were felled) due to the overhanging trees, the trees have been fully destroyed. “This is in a conservation area and still it provided no protection.”

Council officials said the conservation area does still provide protection but that this was a matter for the authority’s legal team.

Cllr Wheelton said: “It didn’t protect it the first time, so why now?”

Meanwhile, Cllr Julie Patten, Conservative, said: “We should prosecute. It is absolutely ridiculous. We can’t allow people to chop down trees just because they want to build a house. They just couldn’t care less.”

Cllr Alan Jones, Labour, said: “The situation is how it is regardless of how we got here. The tree protection order breach is a matter for enforcement. If the site is not developed it will remain in the middle of the community undeveloped.”

Cllr Andy Kirke, Conservative, said: “Let’s be very clear, this is not an accident, this is not a mistake, this was a deliberate act of defiance to wilfully remove trees and have the house built in a different place to increase the size. It is very clearly a pre-meditated act.

“I was very clear last summer that I wanted the council to act and I am very disappointed that action has still only been considered.

“People will see this as the developer being rewarded with a new plan and it is a step too far.”

Melbourne Parish Council has not objected but said its members are “disappointed” at the lack of explanation or apology regarding the developer sticking to the original plan.