Mess left by council workers ‘ruined beauty spot’

Unsightly heaps of woodchip have been removed from the roadside after concerned residents questioned the need to fell trees in the upper dale. 

Trees at Holwick and on Folly Bank, near Eggleston, were pruned and some were removed by Durham County Council earlier this month.
After the work was completed, residents began to complain about the mess that had been left behind.
County councillor Richard Bell said: “They have come back and took away some of the logs but the big piles of woodchip are going to take a long time to rot. It is an eyesore. You can expect six inches of woodchip but a mound of woodchip a couple of feet high is not going to disappear any time soon.
“There are also lots of people concerned because of nesting birds. I have asked the council to suspend the operation while we sort this out.
“Farmers are claiming that the trees are damaging their walls and therefore they are taking them out after a request from the farmers. There does not look like there is any damage to the walls.”
In Holwick, contractors had also removed a number of trees and left a large amount of woodchip on the grass verge. Andrew Robinson, of Holwick, was one of the farmers who made a request for the work to be carried out.
He said: “The fields are not stock proof anymore. Without taking the trees down we couldn’t get to the walls to repair them. We requested for the trees to be cut down so we could get through to the walls. There were no birds nesting in them.
“We have planted the same number of trees that have been cut down. We have planted native species in more appropriated places.”
Woodchip was cleared from both areas early last week after the Teesdale Mercury contacted Durham County Council for comment.
Durham County Council’s clean and green manager, Jimmy Bennett, said: “We were contacted by farmers at Folly Bank, near Eggleston, and Holwick reporting that trees on land adjoining their properties were damaging walls. We carried out inspections and, after confirming there were no nests present, pruned or removed a small number of trees at each location to ease the pressure on the walls. We were asked by residents at Holwick to leave some logs for their use and did so.
“Unused logs were subsequently removed while woodchip has since been cleared from both sites.”