CAMPAIGNERS say planning officers were slow to respond over fears that protected trees fringing lodges at Lowercroft were being felled.

Chainsaws were heard on Monday morning last week as trimming work on trees bordering the lower Whiteheads lodge took place.

Following calls from anxious residents, council officers were notified by Friends of Cockey Moor, Whiteheads and Parker's Lodges chairman Mrs Elaine Shirt.

But no enforcement personnel arrived at the site until Wednesday, after the matter had been raised at a meeting of Bury's planning control committee the previous evening.

It was eventually reported that one tree within the protection area, to the south of Gisburn Drive, had been pruned.

However, Mrs Shirt said that several trees appeared to be damaged by the trimming and added the response was too slow.

She said: "People heard the noise and thought that the trees were being chopped down.

"We went to have a look and saw that the trees were being pruned. They've been pruned so much that we thought some might not have survived.

"By the time the enforcement officers turned up, the damage had been done. What is the point of having a blanket tree protection on hundreds of trees when there is so little urgency to protect them?" said Mrs Shirt.

However, a spokesman for the planning department said that only one pruned tree was found when the site was visited.

Mr Keith Talbot, who owns the lodges and their immediate bankings, maintained that the tree had been outside the protection area and that no rules had been breached.

He said: "Where any further work is carried out on that banking, we will be in touch with Bury Council to make sure that we are within the rules and regulations."

Mr Talbot said that possible damage to the bankings from the trees was a matter for long-term concern.

However, Bury planning department said the tree was within the protection area and that prior consent for pruning should have been sought.

A spokesman said: "We are taking that issue up with the landowner."