CAMPAIGNERS are fighting to save to mature Maple trees set to be cut down by the council over damages to the footway.

Removal notices were posted on the trees in Thorpe Hall Avenue, by the junctions with Johnstone Road and Fermoy road, last week.

Southend Council says the trees’ roots are badly damaging the surrounding footpaths and roads, and must be cut down to allow for repair works.

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Environmental campaign group South East Essex Friends of the Earth have launched a bid to save the trees, decorating and naming the trees as Ents, a race of talking humanoid trees from the poplar fantasy book and film series Lord of the Rings.

Campaigner Shah Haider, 48, said: “These marvellous fellows, Fladrif and Finglas, are some of the oldest residents of Thorpe Bay.

“The council can point towards replanting, but it would take a sapling about 30 or 40 years to even get close to producing the same amount of oxygen.”

“On top of that, Southend already has very low tree canopy coverage and we are losing green spaces rapidly.”

A 2019 council report found the canopy cover of the borough of Southend is estimated at 12 per cent, well below the UK average of 17 per cent and London’s coverage of 21 per cent.

Mr Haider added: “If we are getting rid of trees over minor pavement damage we will end up with nothing left.”

A council ruling on the tree said: “For both trees the large area of surface roots spreading out from the base have caused significant disruption to the hard surfacing of the public footway, kerb edging and the gutter area of the roadway, which has health and safety implications.

“Repairs to this hard surfacing have been carried out in the past but the extent of the damage has now reached a level where repairing the footway would not be possible without cutting back a significant number of large and structural roots for both trees.

“This cannot be done safely as to do so would destabilise the tree and render it hazardous. For these reasons our only option is to remove both trees so that the footway, kerb edging, and gutter areas of the road can be repaired properly.”