Aldi, Change Your Planning Policies to Preserve Treasured Trees!

  • by: Susan V
  • recipient: Aldi Corporation, UK

For a month the UK’s Ecology building society fought to save a 250 year-old lime tree overhanging the society’s grounds. But it took contractors only five minutes to destroy that 100-foot-tall tree - to pave the way for an Aldi supermarket.

Ethics manager Anna Laycock says chopping down the tree wasn’t necessary, and she offered to help with alternate store designs to allow it to remain standing. When Aldi contractors arrived a month earlier Laycock stood beneath the tree’s branches and tried to engage them in negotiations - but Aldi refused. Even hundreds of supporters of facebook and Twitter campaigns failed to alter Aldi’s plans.

In killing this old tree, Aldi has sacrificed an important historical and ecological asset to build just another generic supermarket. Silsden, however, isn't letting Aldi forget about it.

This West Yorkshire community wants Aldi to learn a lesson from the destruction of its beloved lime tree. It insists Aldi must change the way it builds its future stores - working with communities in a more respectful manner to preserve their natural features.

Join Silsden in insisting that Aldi change its planning policies to preserve treasured trees.

We, the undersigned, support the West Yorkshire community’s efforts to insist Aldi change the way it builds its future stores.

We agree with the Ecology building society’s statement that the Silsden lime tree and other natural features are “important ecological and historical assets” that “should belong to the local community, not to a global supermarket chain.”.

Furthermore there is no excuse for a multi-billion pound chain that professes to a commitment “to reducing the environmental impact” and carbon footprint of the business” including a goal of “meeting leading global standards for green buildings,” to fail to come up with a plan to save a tree so valued by a community.

Aldi’s statement of “regret” claims there was no alternative to removing the Silsden tree, and insensitively implies that its proposed program of replanting could possibly make up for felling a 250-year-old tree.

We request that Aldi make community consultation and preservation of nature a MUCH higher priority in future.


Thanks for your time.

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