{"id":3053,"date":"2025-12-12T16:05:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2025-12-12T16:05:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:05:58","slug":"christmas-tree-in-durham-village-chopped-down-hours-after-lights-switched-on-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=3053","title":{"rendered":"Christmas tree in Durham village chopped down hours after lights switched on | England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A Christmas tree that had stood in a village for more than a decade has been chopped down hours after having its lights switched on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The tree, in Shotton Colliery in County Durham, was felled between 10pm and 11pm on Wednesday. It is believed to have been cut down deliberately. Police are appealing for witnesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Steve Maitland, the chair of the Shotton Residents Association, said the tree had been put up as a monument to soldiers who died in the first world war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThese people who did this \u2013 I don\u2019t think they understand the history and the feeling of these things,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He described the incident as an act of \u201cmindless vandalism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe Christmas trees lights were turned on at about 5pm and 80 to 100 people turned up to watch. Hours later, this has happened,\u201d he said. \u201cWhoever has done it feels they can get away with it, but hopefully they will be caught.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"8b5e82c4-16e9-41a9-8fff-bdecbe0882a6\" data-spacefinder-role=\"supporting\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-a2pvoh\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-9ktzqp\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">It is believed the tree was cut down deliberately<\/span> Photograph: Durham Police\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Maitland also said villagers had begun making a sleeve for the tree\u2019s base so that it could be put up for the moment \u201cjust to tide us over for Christmas\u201d and that the residents were going to \u201cpush on and try and get it sorted\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">St Saviour\u2019s, a parish church in the village, posted on Facebook : \u201cAfter all the people who gave their time and effort to raise funds to get a tree for the village. This morning a tree surgeon has looked at the damage and said it\u2019s been done with a chainsaw. May the people who caused this be caught and punished by the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">PC David Allan, from the Peterlee neighbourhood police team, said: \u201cThis was a disgusting act of mindless vandalism, which has caused huge upset throughout the village at a time when our community should be coming together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe are treating this incident extremely seriously and we will deal with anyone responsible as robustly as the law allows. This behaviour has no place in our community. Someone knows something \u2013 please help us find who is responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Anyone with any information, should contact Durham constabulary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Christmas #tree #Durham #village #chopped #hours #lights #switched #England<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christmas tree that had stoo&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}