A TELECOMS company has apologised after a protected tree was chopped down to make way for a new phone mast.

A 150-year-old tree was felled at Bothen Hill, near Bothenhampton, under the instruction of Vodafone. The tree had had a preservation order on it, which prohibits the cutting down of trees without the local planning authority’s written consent.

Eyewitness Martin Maudsley was walking near Bothen Hill when he spotted the engineers cutting down the tree and says he is ‘absolutely appalled and saddened’ that the pine tree has been felled.

Mr Maudsley said: “Those trees are 150 years old and are protected. The trees are of my parents’ generation. There are nesting birds in there. If people had known this was going to place there would have been an army of people down there.”

Vodafone has apologised.

A spokesman for Vodafone said: “Our contractor acted in good faith as we were given permission to remove the tree by the site owner to allow access to the site. We understand the tree showed signs of disease, however, we were unaware that the tree was protected and we’re sorry this happened.

“Work has stopped temporarily and we’re talking to the council about the best way forward including replacing the tree as part of this work.”

A Tree Preservation Order (TPO) is an order made by a local planning authority, in this case West Dorset District Council, to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. An order prohibits the cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage or wilful destruction of trees without the authority’s written consent.

Cllr Ian Gardner, WDDC spokesman for planning, said: “The tree in question did have a Tree Preservation Order. However, in this case the tree shows clear signs of disease and could have been felled under Section 198 of the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012 as it was likely to fall. Because of this, our enforcement team is unlikely to take further action.”

“No surgery or felling is to be undertaken to the remaining trees. Should the developer need to do work to the trees, an application will need to be submitted which will be considered on its merits.”