A group of street mime performance artists led a silent vigil to protest against the felling of a beloved 123-year-old tree.<br /><br />Dressed in red cloaks and wearing white makeup, members of environmental group, the Red Rebels, descended on Stroud Green in Haringey, north London, where the future of a plane tree hangs in the balance.<br /><br />Campaigners have been trying to prevent the felling of the tree since the council announced its plans to cut it down last April.<br /><br />The council feared it could face paying £1million if it remained standing, as insurance companies Allianz and Aviva claimed that it was causing subsidence to two nearby homes.<br /><br />But the owner of one of the homes launched a judicial review, claiming the insurers didn't want to pay for underpinning his home so had taken the cheap option of forcing the council into chopping it down.<br /><br />At the March 16 hearing, the judge was about to approve the council's order to stop protests when homeowner Andrew Brenner launched his own last-minute legal bid to stop the council from chopping down the tree. <br /><br />However, Mr Brenner’s attempt ended up being in vain, with judge Sir Roy Cranston dismissing the judicial review into the council’s actions on March 29.<br /><br />He said that Haringey Council had not acted unlawfully in relation to the tree.<br /><br />While the insurance companies blame the tree for causing the subsidence to the homes, Mr Brenner believes that the houses need underpinning, which the firms are trying to avoid. <br /><br />Mr Brenner said he was "saddened”, for had the judgment gone in his favour, it would have exposed "the balance of power" that insurance companies have over householders, councils, and communities.<br /><br />Mr Brenner has been trying to get Aviva to underpin his home since 2014 and outlined the possible solutions when a tree is thought to be causing subsidence.<br /><br />He asked: "Do you underpin the house with a root barrier that allows you to keep the tree and the house? Or do you take out the tree and try to avoid doing all the work on the house?<br /><br />"We don't value trees so that's the easy option and the councils are weak compared to the insurers."<br /><br />He added: "The fundamental problem is that insurers are not helping householders who have these problems and they are using the tree and the council as a way of saving themselves money at the expense of everybody else, including the council, including householders, and including the community.<br /><br />"All of that is tied up and the balance of power is really uneven. I can't afford what the insurers can afford in terms of legal costs.<br /><br />"We're going to have to keep fighting. It's not over."<br /><br />In 2017, Mr Brenner filed a complaint through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which said the house could be underpinned without removing the tree, but Aviva did not do this.<br /><br />The High Court heard a further complaint to the FOS last year had been "delayed" as insurance companies did not submit information in time for the court hearings regarding Haringey’s bid to stop protesters.
