RESIDENTS in a Darwen conservation area have described their shock at coming home to find decades-old trees chopped down.

As the work in Joseph Street had been carried out without any notice, and the tree stumps left “in a shoddy state”, residents wondered whether they had been vandalised.

But Blackburn with Darwen Council admitted to carrying out the work because of complaints that the trees were unsafe.

Mark Westall, chairman of the St Peter’s Residents’ Association, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw what had happened.

“There’s not been a letter through anyone’s door saying this was going to happen, and as it’s a conservation area, I wouldn’t have thought it was allowed.

“We won a grant from the Stand Out in Darwen campaign to make the area cleaner and greener. This hardly fits into the council coming and cutting down the trees.”

He added: “The trees were fairly tall and there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with them.

“The way they’ve been left is dangerous – the stumps come to the top of my thighs, and anyone round here could impale themselves on them, especially little ones.”

Sunnyhurst councillor Dave Smith said: “The council wouldn’t remove them in a conservation area unless there was good reason.

“I will be pushing for them to be replaced so that the street scene remains unaffected.”

Tony Watson, borough head of environmental services, said: “A resident from Joseph Street contacted the council to complain about a dead tree on the street.

“This issue was logged and the tree was inspected and removed and the remaining tree on the street was also found to be unsafe and this was also removed.”

The trees were whitebeams and were not subject to a protection order.

There are plans to replace them in the future.