COMPLAINTS from a neighbour could not stop the felling of a tree with nesting birds in it yesterday afternoon. A tearful resident of the Courtil St Jacques Estate, who did not wish to be named, spoke of how she had tried to stop tree surgeons felling a pine in the children’s play area.

‘I was hanging out my washing when I heard a guy up the tree say ﾓWe’ve got a problem here – there’s a nest in itﾔ.’

The woman said she watched as the woodpigeon hen abandoned the nest and she asked the men to stop.

‘When they didn’t, I told them I would call Sue Vidamour ‘Animal Aid founder’, and they said I’d better hurry up as I only had five minutes.’

The woman said she ran inside to make the call and when she went back outside, one of the men was walking towards her holding the nest, which was still intact and had two fluffy grey chicks in it. She said the men had not been rude to her.

Barrett Landscapes managing director Jon Luff said his staff had had no choice.

The play area had been closed for many months because the four pine trees in it were shedding limbs at random. They were dangerous and had been condemned.

‘Before we fell any tree, a tree surgeon always climbs it and checks for nests,’ he said.

‘We’d done that with all of them and found nothing, but this one must have been obscured from view.’

Mr Luff said he had called States arboricultural officer Andrew McCutcheon and explained the situation and he too had said felling should continue. The men had then removed the nest carefully without touching the chicks.

‘We’d already started dismantling the last section and we couldn’t leave the rest as it was overhanging properties and posing a risk to the occupants,’ said Mr Luff.

‘All of our employees feel very sad about it and had there been any alternative we would have taken it.’

Mrs Vidamour said she was seething as she drove to the play area. She estimated that the chicks were about one week old and said she was not hopeful for their survival. ‘But we’ll do our best,’ she added.

She claimed she was the one who had telephoned Mr McCutcheon.

‘If the play area had been closed for so long, why couldn’t they have waited just a little bit longer until the birds had fledged?’ she asked.