A group of Harrogate residents have raised concerns after a property developer chopped down five trees in the grounds of St Mary’s Church.

One of the residents, Matthew Weller, said he noticed that three trees had been felled last week. A couple of days later he woke to the sound of chainsaws.

It is unclear at this time whether the trees are protected or in a conservation area. The council is investigating.

Mr Weller rushed out of his flat as he watched the fourth tree fall. He asked to see their workman’s paperwork but said he was dismissed. The workers chopped down a fifth tree soon after.

He told the Stray Ferret:

“The planning department has not made any decision on the original planning application from a year ago so we stopped paying attention to it. We are not trying to halt this process, we recognise that it needs redevelopment. This group just wants the best possible outcome for everyone.”

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The group has now got 45 members and has called a meeting for residents outside Westcliffe Hall at 4pm this Saturday. The organisers have asked just one person per household to attend.

St Mary’s Church on Harlow Terrace dates back to 1916 and is a Grade II* Listed Building. The church has structural problems and is in need of a lot of work.

What remains of the trees at St Mary’s Church.

The Stray Ferret approached Hattersley Property Solutions as well as Shaw and Jagger Architects with a request for comment. Both said they were not responsible for the felling of trees.

A spokesman for Harrogate Borough Council told the Stray Ferret that it is considering placing a Tree Preservation Order on the remaining trees:

“We have been made aware of trees that have been removed from the site and we are now looking into whether that has been a breach of planning conditions, or not.”

Those who deliberately destroy a protected tree face fines up to £20,000 per tree through a magistrates’ court.

Vandals have pulled up young trees on the Stray in the evening that police officers cracked down on large groups.

Community police officers tried to disperse some of the larger groups yesterday and reminded them of the social distancing guidelines.

Some rebutted the officers and claimed that they were all in different groups of six or that they were all from the same family.

The levels of litter this morning were not close to the mounds of rubbish left the day before. A new problem has emerged this morning but it is unclear who is responsible.

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Judy d’Arcy Thompson from the Stray Defence Association (SDA) said this morning that the uprooting of trees just adds to the “horrendous destruction.”

“We now seem to have marauding gangs of youths wreaking mayhem on our Stray. The drunken, lewd and downright disgusting behaviour is going on all night every night. There seems to be no limit to what they will do or how disgusting their behaviour can become.”

Police dispersed groups on the Stray yesterday evening.

She added that the SDA has seen reports of mass gatherings, drug-taking and dealing on a huge scale as well as youngsters urinating and defecating.

An SDA committee member Guy Tweedy had planted the trees in memory of several people.

The Stray Ferret has approached both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire Police for a comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.