A woman’s ‘harmful’ plan to cut back a tree in Bourne End has been stopped by Buckinghamshire Council.

Rebecca Thompson wanted to remove up to 2.5m from the top of a large sycamore to the rear of her home in Fieldhead Gardens.

The applicant said this would reduce the all-round bulk of the tree by 15 per cent, adding that she also planned to thin the canopy by 10 per cent ‘on densely foliated foliage clusters’.

However, the council refused her proposed work on the sycamore, which is covered by a tree preservation order from 1996.

A planning officer said there were ‘no obvious, significant anomalies with tree condition’ either put forward by the applicant or seen during their site visit.

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They claimed that the style of pruning proposed ‘not only opens the tree to possible decay, but the tree often reacts by sending out reaction growth’.

In their decision notice, the officer said: “In the opinion of the local planning authority the tree subject of this application makes an important contribution to the appearance and character of the local environment.

“In the absence of supporting information to demonstrate the necessity for such extensive work, the application is considered to be unjustified, unsympathetic and harmful in terms of tree health and visual amenity of the local area.”

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