Fury as quarry firm chops down trees

RESIDENTS have been left furious with the owner of a Plymstock quarry for hacking down dozens of 'healthy' full grown trees which shielded the works from the quiet residential street and was home to a range of wildlife and claim the landscape has been 'left looking like a battle scene out of Apocalypse Now!

- CARL EVE 

The residents in the cul-de-sac The Hollows, off Billacombe Road in Elburton, were awoken earlier this week by a large digger and chainsaws cutting and smashing down a large range of trees which are set across a high bund which borders the Moorcroft Quarry. Shortly after 8.15am each morning this week contractors have turned up to hack down the trees, piling some up at the top of the high bund, while others have been left to roll down the steep hill, residents say.

Many of the residents appeared unaware that the tree felling was about to be carried out along the entire length of the road, nor the reason or extent of the cutting and some have been left 'appalled' at the state of the small but much valued woods following the operation.

One angry resident said: "The trees along the border have been there for decades - they're really tall and lush in summer and create a natural curtain which muffles a lot of the noise from the quarry. There's a big operation just on the other side and they start work early and it can be really noisy sometimes, so the curtain of trees has been a real benefit to the street.