OXFORD City Council has been criticised for cutting back “harmless” bushes in Cutteslowe without telling anyone.

The bushes are outside a block of flats off Wentworth Road and screen the homes from busy Banbury Road.

But they have been cut back without any of the residents being asked or notified. And residents cannot understand why.

City councillor for Summertown Jean Fooks has been trying to get to the bottom of what happened. She said: “There is nothing left. It seems extraordinary. I cannot understand why they have been cut down.

“It seems they didn’t think of consulting residents before making an arbitrary decision to cut down the bushes.

“They weren’t doing anyone any harm and they were screening the flats from Banbury Road and the double-decker buses which use it.

“This is something which shouldn’t have happened without telling anyone.”

When the bushes, as well as a lilac tree, were cut down Ms Fooks was told the council had no idea who did it.

But she has since been told the city council was responsible.

Wojtek Parczewski, 34, lives in the flats, which are managed by the city council, with his wife and four children and came home from work last week to find the bushes were gone.

He said: “I am not English, but my children were born here. I teach them to take care about the environment and respect nature and this country.

“I know that we have a problem with unemployment in this country, but I think it is not the right approach to create jobs by doing unnecessary and unwanted work.

“It is silly. The bushes were perfectly fine. I spoke to my neighbour and he is unhappy about this as well.

“Banbury Road is a busy street so they prevented noise from coming in. It is noisier in the flat now. They also gave us a lot of privacy but now everyone in the double-decker buses can look in.”

The city council did not comment.