ONE hundred new trees are being planted in place of several large oaks chopped down to make way for allotments.

Basildon Council caused outrage when it felled between the oak trees in Victoria Park, Laindon, in January, to make way for 40 allotments.

Neighbours complained they had not been consulted about the plans and called for the trees, which they claimed must have been at least 100 years old, to be replaced.

Council leaders responded to the outcry by agreeing not to take down any more trees and replace all those that had been chopped down.

Planting work on 100 new trees, to try to compensate for the lost oaks, is set to begin early next week and should be finished by Friday.

Hugh Reynolds, the council’s head of parks and grounds maintenance, said: “The work to plant the 100 new trees in Victoria Park will take place shortly.

“These will be young trees, which have the best chance of survival and will add to the existing tree belts along the western boundary of the park.”

All the new oak, ash and field marble trees will only be a few months old and stand between one and 1.5 metres tall.

Mr Reynolds said he decided to plant younger and smaller trees, because they will have a better chance of survival, than if larger, more established trees were transplanted from other locations.

Vic York, of Buller Road, Laindon, was one of the residents who complained about the trees being chopped down in January.

Mr York, who has lived in Laindon for more than 40 years, raised concern the new trees could be vandalised.

He said: “I would much rather they replaced the lovely old trees we lost with a smaller number of big, better established ones.

“One of the trees which was chopped down had such a big trunk, I couldn’t fit my arms around it.

“I thought it was a scandal when they cut them down.

“Im worried these new trees are much too small and will get damaged before they get a chance to grow anywhere near the size of the ones they’re replacing.”