LOCAL estate agent Michael Skidmore has set up a fighting fund, which could pay for a legal injunction being taken out against Monmouthshire County Council to save the Catalpa Tree.

Monmouth Archaelo-gical Society and the local Action Group are currently awaiting the report of a second qualified aboriculturist.

The specialist, from the Cotswolds area, has examined the tree, pictured below, and is expected to support the earlier conclusions of Roy Finch - that the tree is outstanding and could and should be saved.

The chairman of Monmouth Action Group, archaeologist Stephen Clarke, believes that would be enough for the town to mount a legal challenge against the council.

However, he added that he hopes the local authority will reconsider its plan in the light of the new report without having to take out an injunction. If Councillors maintain their view that the tree should be felled, Mr Skidmore's newly established fighting fund would help pay for continued opposition.

He told members of Monmouth Town Council, at their meeting last week: "I may not be a specialist in trees and have no botanical experience to speak of, but I do care passionately about trees, and the Catalpa Tree in particular, as they can add so much to the quality of our environment." Mr Skidmore added that though he is not a Monmothian by birth, he has lived and worked in the town for approaching 30 years.

He added: "I think it will be a grim day, when and if the Catalpa Tree is felled, which is the plan that Monmouthshire County Council wish to adopt."

Protesters believe that the Catalpa tree has a further 10 to 20 years life span ahead of it, provided it is given a little help which they claim it has not received in the past.

And Monmouthshire County Council's Chief Executive has said that if a new report differed greatly from the Council's own commissioned report, then there may be room for some reassessment of the situation. The tree's supporters now hope the pending report will encourage the Council to reconsider its decision to fell the tree.

But Mr Skidmore concluded that if the new findings suggest that the Catalpa should be felled: "Then this is when I feel that we should accept the decision and satisfied in the knowledge feel that we've did our best." Donations will be invited into the fund once a bank account has been opened.