TEMPERS frayed in Falmouth this morning [Monday, December 8] when contractors and protesters met at the site of three much-loved street trees due to be felled.

Heated exchanges took place and protesters remonstrated with police officers as the healthy 60-year-old lime trees in Trelawney Road met their end due claims their roots are damaging a neighbouring property.

However, campaigners claim no concrete evidence of damage has been produced, and communications have been hindered by a confidentiality clause in an out-of-court settlement – estimated at around £107,000, but neither confirmed nor denied - between Cornwall Council and the homeowner in question.

During a heated public meeting last Wednesday (December 3) at Falmouth Town Council’s offices, Phil Mason, Cornwall Council’s strategic director for sustainable growth and place, described “a private agreement on something which has had so much public interest” as “a mistake”.

However, he denied the council was “breaking the law”, claimed it had the right to fell the trees under the Highways Act. “I’ve seen photographs, a survey and all of the evidence that’s been submitted and the council agreed, within the bounds of a court decision, that we were causing a nuisance and damage with those trees, and therefore we were obliged to take those trees down,” he added.

Following the meeting, campaign group Stop the Chop! revealed it had instructed solicitors to issue a Judicial Review Pre Action Protocol letter to prevent the felling, requiring Cornwall Council to cancel its plans by 4pm on Friday [December 5].

A Stop the Chop! spokesperson said: “We have given [the council] every chance to act in the public interest and reassure the community by showing evidence of the damage they claim. We now believe they refuse to do so because the evidence to justify the fellings doesn't actually exist.”