A collection of trees in Penrith, which residents fear could come apart from a killer fungus, are not going to be removed, a council official has confirmed this week.
Residents fear a further six remain and think they too should be felled as they are 150ft tall and are overhanging a popular public footpath.
One was felled on 27th July and residents say the council should have taken them all down instead of waiting for them to deteriorate.
Neil Buck, a contracts manager with Westmorland and Furness Council, has now told residents that the remaining trees are not deemed “high risk”.
Mr Buck said the council had no immediate plans to remove the remaining trees but said that their condition is being monitored.
“Should any become deemed as high risk then they will be instructed to be removed,” said Mr Buck in an email to residents.
“It would make no economic or environmental sense to remove trees when their removal is not considered as being necessary by our experts in this field,” he added, having visited the site with a tree specialist.
Resident Ron Thompson disagrees and has been trying to get a permanent solution since June.
Mr Thompson said: “If you go online, it states that any tree with ash dieback which is overhanging a public footpath should come down. Monitoring them is not going to be a big help to anybody if a big branch comes down on them. Trees over 150ft tall should never have been allowed in an urban area in the first place. It seems the council don’t want to do anything.”
Mr Thompson said it would have made more economic sense for the council to remove all the infected trees at the same time.
