Residents on estate lined with conker trees in Milton Keynes beg for them be chopped down

Residents on an estate where every street is lined with trees are begging that many of them be chopped down.

Coffee Hall was built in the 1970s and dozens of young horse chestnut trees were planted to give it a green and leafy appearance.

But over the decades the trees have grown to huge proportions and have now become a nuisance, with rotten branches falling on parked cars and roots lifing up concrete paving, say residents.

Ironically their plea to get the trees felled comes in a week when residents in Newport Pagnell have exactly the opposite problem. They are so determined to save a mature horse chestnut from the chop thatthey formed a human chain around it yesterday(星期三)。

That tree, along with nearby sycamore, was due to be felled because an insurance company think its roots are causing “movement” in a nearby house.

A few miles away in Coffee Hall, residents saying they’ve been urging the council for 25 years to chop down their horse chestnuts.

"It's not the fact of the trees, it's the type of trees. They are lifting up paths making them a major trip hazard and the roots from trees are growing under the houses with the possibility of damaging foundation,” said householder Kevin Tidy.

Several vehicles have been damaged from falling conkers and during recent high winds an entire tree that was rotten from within fell on a car and blocked several exits to houses.

"Fallen branches also causing damage and restricting access to people's premises,” he added.

"Recently a tree survey was carried out to identify rotten trees. The one that fell on the car was not marked for removal.”

Kevin says the estate has a high number of elderly or disabled residents. Walking is “very dangerous” in the autumn due to slippery leaves and conkers covering the pavements.

Following the survey, trees that were marked for removal have been partly felled, leaving half a stump.

“On part of the estate an experiment was carried out where the trees have been removed and replaced with more appropriate trees and curbed parking, creating the opportunity for a flower bed,” said Kevin,

Residents now want this to happen to many more of the horse chestnuts