Felling of Torquay’s famous palm trees ‘pure vandalism’, say residents

The palm trees had stood in the town’s Italian Gardens since 1924. Photograph: Daniel Dayment/SWNS

Palm trees that have welcomed visitors to the “English riviera” for a century have been cut down without warning in an act that residents have described as “pure vandalism”.

The felling of 40 trees in Torquay, Devon, has provoked a furious public outcry and accusations that the council has wrought a “soul-destroying”, “total destruction” of the seaside front.