Overview

• Insurers for the Diocese of Coventry have told Richard and Melanie Gray to remove the tree or face a £69,768.88 plus VAT root-barrier installation, with plans to recover the cost.
• The Grays say they will neither pay nor fell the tree, describing the correspondence as threatening and noting that any enforcement would require a court order.
• The diocese alleges the sycamore’s roots caused subsidence at the adjacent new vicarage, which stands about 15 metres from the tree and the Grays’ home.
• The couple points to a January 2023 engineers’ report they say did not blame the tree and to a burst mains pipe that reportedly flooded the vicarage with about 13,000 gallons a day for three days.
• Clyde & Co, representing the insurers, says its work was carried out professionally and fairly; the tree, known locally as the Four Shire Tree, stands on land the diocese sold in the early 1980s.