Loughborough Firm Handed Record £268k Tree Felling Fine

A Loughborough petrol station company has been handed England’s highest ever fine for illegal tree felling — a whopping £268,751 — after years of defying orders to replant the mixed broadleaf woodland it illegally cleared beside its forecourt on Ashby Road.

What Happened at Snells Nook Lane

Motor Fuel Ltd, whose site sits at the junction of Ashby Road and Snells Nook Lane in Loughborough, felled a section of mixed broadleaf woodland in 2019. The trees were cleared as a pre-emptive move ahead of a proposed expansion of the petrol station forecourt. No felling licence was obtained. The Forestry Commission investigated and served a Restocking Notice under the Forestry Act 1967, directing the company to replant the cleared trees.

Motor Fuel Ltd did not comply. A further Enforcement Notice was then served under Section 24 of the Act. Ignoring an Enforcement Notice without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence, and the matter was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. The company was charged, and on 28 January 2026 — nearly seven years after the original felling — Motor Fuel Ltd appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty.

The court ordered a total payment of £268,751, comprising a fine of £266,666, prosecution costs of £85, and a victim surcharge of £2,000. The entire sum was due within 28 days of sentencing. The Forestry Commission confirmed this is the highest fine ever imposed by an English court in a tree felling case.

176 Trees Must Be Replanted and Maintained for a Decade

Beyond the financial penalty, the court issued a Restocking Order requiring Motor Fuel Ltd to replant 176 trees on the site and maintain them for ten years. Should the company fail to comply, it faces contempt of court proceedings — which can result in further financial penalties or even a custodial sentence.

Richard Pearce, the Forestry Commission’s Area Director for the East and East Midlands, said: “Felling trees without a licence or failing to comply with an Enforcement Notice is unacceptable. This case demonstrates how seriously the Forestry Commission and the courts take the protection of trees, woodlands and forests, and the harm caused by illegal felling to the climate and nature.”

Our Take: Seven Years Is Far Too Long

Let’s be honest about what happened here. A company decided it wanted to expand its forecourt, looked at a piece of woodland, and quietly cut it down — apparently calculating that the consequences would be manageable. For six years, that calculation held. The trees stayed gone. The enforcement notices came and went. Life carried on.

The record fine is welcome, and the Forestry Commission deserves credit for seeing this prosecution through. But nobody should be cheering too loudly. It took nearly seven years from the moment those trees were felled to the moment a court finally imposed meaningful punishment. In the interim, a section of mixed broadleaf woodland — the kind of habitat that takes decades to mature — simply ceased to exist on the edge of a Loughborough suburb.

Motor Fuel Ltd is a large company. A fine of £268,751 is a record in the eyes of the law. In the context of a fuel retail business operating multiple sites across the country, it is not obvious that it represents the kind of deterrent that will make the next company think twice before clearing inconvenient trees ahead of a planning application.

That is the uncomfortable truth sitting behind the headlines. The Forestry Commission is right to trumpet this result — it is a genuine milestone. But the real question is whether the system is fast enough and the penalties steep enough to actually change behaviour before the damage is done, rather than seven years afterwards.

The answer, at least in this case, is plainly no. The trees came down in 2019. A Restocking Notice was issued. Then an Enforcement Notice. Then a criminal referral. Then a court appearance. Then a conviction. Each step took time that the woodland did not have.

Charnwood is a borough that is already under significant development pressure. The Snells Nook Lane corridor alone has seen contentious housing applications — including a 128-home development on land nearby — draw fierce objections from local residents worried about the erosion of green space. Against that backdrop, the casual destruction of mature broadleaf woodland to make way for a larger petrol station forecourt is not just a legal matter. It is a statement about what kind of town Loughborough is allowed to become.

The replanting order is a step in the right direction. One hundred and seventy-six trees on that site, maintained for a decade, will go some way towards restoring what was lost. But they are saplings. The woodland that was felled was not. Anyone who has walked past a young tree in a plastic guard and compared it to a mature oak or ash knows the difference. You cannot buy back decades of growth with a fine.

We will be watching this one closely. The trees need to go in, they need to survive, and they need to be left alone. We’ll be making sure you know if that happens — and if it doesn’t.

Have Your Say

Were you aware that woodland near the Ashby Road petrol station was cleared back in 2019? Do you think the fine goes far enough — or does a seven-year wait for justice suggest the system needs a serious overhaul? Let us know in the comments below. And if you want to stay on top of environmental and planning stories across Loughborough and Charnwood, sign up for our free local news updates — we’ll make sure you’re the first to know what happens next.