The petitioners sought a faculty for the felling of a mature Scots pine tree. It stood, 18 metres tall and 8 metres in spread, at the junction of two paths in the churchyard and spread over an area used as an entrance to a pre-school. An assessment had identified that the cones, which are sizeable and take two years to mature, posed a significant risk of injury; two adults had been struck by cones in the recent past. One letter of objection was received.

The court considered that it should not lightly interfere where a parish had carried out a careful assessment of risk in good faith. It accepted that the size and weight of the cones were such as to potentially cause serious injury to a child or an elderly person; their number (estimated at 130) was such that the risk was significant rather than speculative or fanciful. A faculty was granted, on condition that a replacement should be planted, of a species and in a location to be approved by the archdeacon. [DW]