TAVISTOCK'S most famous tree is to be given a drastic pruning to stop its demise and to protect the public.
A tree expert has said work to reduce the Honour Oak in Whitchurch Road to half its current size must be done within the next two months.
The oak is 300 to 400 years old and is considered the most historically significant tree in the Tavistock area — it was large enough in the Napoleonic wars to be used as a parole boundary for French prisoners of war.
But a report by tree expert Mike Woolley has revealed that the Honour Oak has decayed to an extent that it is at risk of falling apart at the main forks or snapping off at the base of the main trunk.
Mr Woolley recommended that the tree be reduced to half its current height of 16 metres.
He said although it was functioning quite well, the structure of this tree was now not strong enough to support itself in adverse weather conditions, standing as it did in a heavily used location in terms of both pedestrian and road traffic.
'Reducing the tree to a pollard may look stark initially but it is absolutely the only safe course of action,' he said.
'The work should be carried out in two stages, with at least two years between each pruning operation in order to allow recovery time.'
Mr Woolley has also recommended that the activities of dogs, who use the grassed area around the tree as a public convenience, should be curtailed by putting up signs, and the root area improved to increase the energy levels and life expectancy of this important feature.
Town councillors reluctantly agreed that this was the only course of action and said they would involve a pressure group in the town which was set up to protect trees.