A group of Hucknall residents are demanding answers on why a large area of woodland has been destroyed - in what they say is an act of "sacrilege." People living on Alison Avenue and neighbouring Marion Avenue say that large machinery turned up on Tuesday (October 4) and began clearing the large area of woodland at the end of their roads.
Since starting work, several trees have been felled and the site is now littered with tree stumps and logs. The site just falls within the boundary of Gedling Borough Council, but the authority says it is privately owned land and that no rules have been broken.
It is not clear who owns the land and residents are now feeling anxious about what the eventual plans are for the site. But they are also angry about what has been done to the woodland area so far.
READ MORE: 13-year-old died 'sudden cardiac death' after collapsing at football match
Louise Smith, 51, said: "It was a beautiful area of woodland and now these people have come in and caused absolute destruction. We've lost a buffer for weather and noise but also a natural habitat and it's almost as if these people came in blind and started destroying the place."
Attempts to contact both the Forestry Commission and the company that residents say has been carrying out the work were unsuccessful. The residents say the land was first purchased last October and that while there was some activity on the site around a fortnight before felling started, they had no warning about the woodland work.
Adele Cotton, 77, said: "It's sacrilege what they have done. We used to get hedgehogs, birds and there was a fox in the woodland but they have all disappeared because of this."
The site in question backs on to a large housing development and in the field next door, a planning application was submitted in May for 135 houses to be built on it, with no decision having yet been published on that matter. Louise Smith added: "We are anxious about what the plans will be for this site because Hucknall is becoming a concrete jungle.
"Parking down these roads is already horrendous and that will get so much worse with new development. This work to clear the woodland has already been disruptive because I work from home and it's just a constant noise all day.
"Driveways have been blocked and the machines they're using have churned up the pavement at the entrance to my driveway. But the main thing is the sadness at how much wildlife has been lost, and some of it has probably been killed by the machinery being used."
With a few exceptions, the residents say that workers have been mostly coming on site on a daily basis. Gedling Borough Council confirmed that no rules had been broken and that no trees with Tree Preservation Orders on them had been felled.
READ NEXT:
