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Tournerbury Woods is a 17 hectare area of Hayling Island woodland that takes its name from the Iron Age Tourner Bury fort within it. Within the Bury there are some veteran trees that are believed to be over 250 years old, while trees in the rest of the woods are over 100 years old. An area in the south western part of the woods was destroyed in the great storm of 1987 and this area was replanted by the owners in subsequent years.
The woods are described by Natural England as mature lowland forest mostly composed of English Oak but with occasional Beech, Holly and Yew. The woodland floor has Bluebell, Butcher’s Broom and Honeysuckle. The woods support a range of breeding birds including Herons, Woodcock, Greater Spotted Woodpecker and Tawny Owl with 7 amber list and 2 red list species present. Natural England described the woods as in Favourable condition in their 2022 condition report but acknowledged that ‘part of the site is used for a commercial enterprise’.
However, after conducting some research, Saving Tournerbury Woods was concerned to note from aerial photographs that an area amounting to 15% of the protected woods has been permanently altered by construction, dumping and tree loss since designation as a SSSI nature reserve in 1971. Over 100 years ago part of the woods was used as a brickworks, however, the current venue area is located in an area that was not used by the brickworks according to an oblique air photograph from 1935.
We acknowledge that the part of the woods outside this permanently altered area are largely untouched by development, apart from the resurfacing of earth tracks with gravel that was specifically prohibited under the management agreement in section 6.1 b.
In the core venue area developed between 2012 and 2018 an area of half a hectare has lost almost all the trees that were present in 2012. As a consequence, Saving Tournerbury Woods has been engaged in a stock-taking exercise since 2022 to establish the fate of trees in the venue area around the marquee building, which is now a lawned parkland. The trees could have died naturally, been affected by work taking place around them, been blown down or have been removed.
Since trees in Tournerbury Woods have been protected by Havant Council Tree Preservation Order (TPO) 448 since 1971, and the Council has only given consent for the removal of two trees in 2001, neither of which are in the venue area, no trees should have been actively removed unless they were covered by legal exceptions. Under the TPO any trees that had died and were removed must have been reported to the Council, but it was confirmed by the Council that it had received no reports of this kind. The Natural England Management Agreement also requires that dead and fallen trees should be left in place as far as possible to provide habitat for invertebrates and fungi.
This analysis left a few dozen trees to account for that were visible in air and ground photography in 2012-13 but not present in 2015.
Saving Tournerbury Woods reported its concerns to the Council in 2023, following previous reports about tree loss by an objector on the planning portal in 2020 and by a local councillor in 2022. Analysis of Environment Agency aerial photos (see above) and land surface height data (see below) showed that an earthwork platform with a volume of c. 1000 cubic metres was constructed in the clearing where the marquee is located between 2013 and 2015 (dark green= low in 2005 and light green = 1.2m higher in 2013/2020). Despite the submission of this detailed evidence the Council rejected our concerns about their supervision of the Tree Preservation Order, and the matter is currently being considered by the Local Government Ombudsman in late 2025.
Saving Tournerbury Woods held a public meeting on 13th January 2024 to share with local people our stock-taking work and concerns about the tree loss. Following that meeting the owners of the woods issued proceedings for libel in the High Court in August 2024 (KB-2024-002743) claiming that our statements about tree loss defamed the owners. Saving Tournerbury Woods strenuously denied any such accusation and appointed specialist legal counsel.
After protracted legal argument over 14 months, the owners of the woods allowed the time limit for the formal serving of proceedings to expire. By doing so they decided not to proceed with their case, and under the Single Publication Rule Saving Tournerbury Woods has immunity from any future action on any complaints made in the libel claim. We are therefore now publishing the evidence we collected and the answers given by the owners in open legal correspondence relating to four specimen trees on the edges of the venue area.
In summary, the owners say that these four trees died naturally despite their efforts to save them. When asked why they had not given the formal notice to the local authority required by the Tree Preservation Order before removing trees they say had died, they have told us that this was not necessary as they were relying on an exception allowed in the law relating to their management agreement. We have set out this evidence and the legal arguments on the Trees removed page.
There is a statute of limitation on action under TPO legislation of three years. Our concern now is to ensure that Havant Council fully comply with their duties under the 2012 Tree Regulations , which is why we made a complaint to them in 2024. We also wish to see the full history of these tree losses being assessed in any future planning applications. We are now awaiting the decision of the Local Government Ombudsman on the rejection of our complaint, which we will publish here.
December 2025 update