With Banksy's artwork drawing attention to rocky relations between urban councils and trees, Plymouth City Council headed back to the High Court last week – and, like the street artist, emerged scarred-but-victorious.

A High Court judge ruled a judicial review (JR) of Plymouth's decision in March 2023 to chop down around 100 trees as part of a seafront development was ‘academic' – partly because, with the trees long gone, the council's leadership had changed hands in May 2023 and distanced itself from much of the felling.