Overview

• Insurers acting for the Diocese of Coventry have issued a letter requiring the Four Shire Tree to be removed or a root barrier installed costing about £69,768.88 plus VAT.
• They state they will install the barrier if the tree is not felled and will seek to recover the cost from Richard and Melanie Gray.
• The Grays refuse to comply and argue the vicarage damage stems from a burst mains pipe that flooded the property with roughly 13,000 gallons a day for three days.
• The sycamore, believed to be around 250 years old, stands about 15 metres from both the Old Parsonage and the newer vicarage in Lower Brailes, on land the diocese sold with the former parsonage in the early 1980s.
• Law firm Clyde & Co, representing the insurers, says its work has been professional and fair, and no court action has been reported.