AN ALLOTMENT which once provided a tranquil haven from city life has been ruined by the removal of dozens of trees, according to the people who use it.

Plot holders on the Redbridge Lane West allotments in Wanstead were dismayed when Redbridge council took the axe to the trees in March this year.

Officers said that many of the trees were unsafe and that others needed to be removed to free up space for new plots.

But seven months on, plot holders say that no new plots have materialised as a result of the work.

Keen vegetable grower Brenda Braithwaite, 65, said: “They chopped down between 20 to 25 trees.

"It's like being on an industrial site as opposed to the rural one we all loved.

“We see the traffic, we smell the pollution and we hear the noise from the road and they haven’t created any new plots in the places where the trees have been removed.”

The plot holders fought an unsuccessful battle to get the local authority to change their minds last year and won the support of conservation charity, the Woodland Trust.

At the time a spokesperson for the Woodland Trust said: “If trees are retained on sites such as allotments they can help to protect the allotment holders' crops from physical damage due to windy conditions. 

“Trees can also reduce water loss to plants through evapotranspiration.”

Mrs Braithwaite said: “Among the other concerns they (the Woodland Trust) raised was that the trees helped prevent flooding and that the allotment could be at risk if they were removed.

“Lo and behold, we were flooded from April to August.”

Mrs Braithwaite added that wildlife had disappeared from the site and that some tree stumps next to plots had not been properly removed.

Fellow plot holder, Sally Parker, said: “It’s horrible down here now. Our plot has the A12 on one side and Redbridge Lane West on the other and we are no longer screened in.

“I understand why the council might want to manage an allotment site but they didn’t need to go to these extremes.

“I feel very privileged to have a plot and I am all for getting more people involved, but I am not aware that they have created any new plots by removing these trees.”

Mrs Braithwaite said she feared that the remaining trees on the allotment were still at risk.

“From personal observation many council employees in our borough do not take cognisance of trees or wildlife and remove habitats without thought,” she said.

“We are all worried that they will come around again with their axes and get rid of the rest.”

A spokesman for Redbridge Council said: "Some work was programmed to allow the creation of additional plots.

"However, in consultation with plot holders this area was removed from the program as it was brought to our attention that it had been developed as a wildlife area some years back.

"Flooding in the Borough was prevalent in many green spaces due to the wettest spring/summer on record. The removal of dead or diseased trees would have had no impact on this issue.

"As part of the consultation with plot holders it was agreed Vision would fund some hedge whips to thicken boundary planting to increase security and to compensate for some tree losses.

"Planting of boundaries with manageable hedging will also protect the allotments from some weather elements; this supports the woodland trust’s statement."

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