Northampton residents furious with council for ruining their privacy by needlessly 'decimating' healthy trees

A group of residents in Northampton have been left angry with the council for needlessly chopping down and cutting back a collection of healthy trees.

The 'decimation' of the trees in Kingsthorpe has removed all privacy for several homes in the area as well as a slight barrier from the noise and light from nearby businesses.

Homeowner Ian Hinton told the Chronicle & Echo: "We need something done about this as it's made a lot of people miserable around here.

"We just can't get our heads around it - I genuinely think they have made a complete cock-up, I really do."

Last month, one of the elderly neighbours on Bondfield Avenue asked Northampton Borough Council to lightly trim the trees by his garden so a new fence could be erected.

Workers turned up a few days later with no warning and chopped down and cut back the trees instead - without consulting anyone who lives there.

The lack of leaves and branches has removed the privacy between the flats above the businesses on Newnham Road and the gardens of the Bondfield Avenue properties.

Mr Hinton said the trees gave some protection from the noise and light from the shops and takeaways as well as shade when the sun is out.

The stress of it all triggered a mental health episode for the 54-year-old resident and one of the neighbours refuses to use their garden now because of the exposure.

On top of the emotional impact, the residents simply cannot understand why the council would cut back healthy trees so drastically when they were not an issue in the first place.

Mr Hinton said: "At the end of the day they were perfectly healthy trees - as much as our privacy has been decimated, they were fine so why are they chopping down good trees?"

"All they needed to do was trim them back and they wouldn't have to come back for 20-30 years but instead they've done this."

The homeowner complained to the council to try to get an explanation and asking for new mature trees to be planted in their place or compensation as they need some sort of privacy.

The council's contractor, Idverde, replied saying the local authority did not have to inform them as it owns the land and the work was done to avoid potential insurance claims and alleviate issues around anti-social behaviour.

"Whilst we understand your frustrations, after further investigation it was deemed the best course of action was to remove the hedge to prevent any further damage to properties," the email adds.

Mr Hinton and the other reisdents cannot understand why anyone would complain about them as they have only caused issues by getting rid of them nor where the anti-social behaviour claim has come from.

The council has been contacted for comment.