Stroud Save The Trees Campaign came to national prominence in August 1989 when Stroud District Council tried to implement a road-widening scheme by a midnight raid on thirteen trees it wished to fell within the perimeter of Stratford Park. However local people got wind of the 'secret' and were there first to protect the trees. After a stand-off that lasted till dawn the police called off the operation on the grounds of public safety. The following year instead of road-widening the first 'traffic calming' in the county was installed. The trees remain to this day. A few years later Stroud District Council planned to fell the hornbeam on the Subscription Rooms forecourt, the only mature tree in the town centre. A quickly mobilised citizenry persuaded them otherwise and the hornbeam survived.