Toby Carvery to pay for orchard planting after causing outrage by felling 500-year-old oak

The restaurant chain Toby Carvery has settled a legal dispute after taking a chainsaw to an ancient oak tree without permission by agreeing to pay for the restoration of a lost orchard.

The unauthorised partial felling of the 500-year-old oak next to a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, in April last year, prompted widespread public outrage and questions in parliament.

Earlier this year Enfield council, which owns the land, started eviction proceedings against the restaurant chain over what it described as “a reckless act which caused huge damage to the tree and cut its expected lifespan.”.

But on Wednesday, Mitchells & Butler Retail (M&B), which runs Toby Carvery, announced it had settled the dispute after agreeing to pay for the replanting of an orchard in the borough and the council’s legal costs.

The company also agreed to pay for treatment of the remains of the oak, which experts say has little hope of surviving due to the damage done by M&B’s contractors.

In April, the Guardian revealed that the work was done by Ground Control, based in Billericay, Essex, which describes itself as “a leading maintenance business and biodiversity expert”.

In joint statement as part of the settlement M&B said it “sincerely apologises for the upset this [the felling] has caused”.

The company has always maintained that chainsawing the tree was necessary for safety reasons because the oak was dying – a claim disputed by tree experts.

The agreed statement added: “Enfield council recognises that M&B acted on the recommendation of reputable, professional advisers in taking the steps that it did, for the purpose of mitigating any health and safety risk to guests, team members and the wider public arising from the condition of the tree.”

M&B’s undisclosed financial settlement will pay for the restoration of an orchard in Enfield’s Ridgeway corridor as part of the council’s Enfield Chase landscape restoration scheme. The statement said: “This will re-establish a publicly accessible community orchard, restore landscape character and biodiversity, and provide locally grown fruit for residents and visitors.”