An eco campaigner was in for the long haul last night as he armed himself with nuts, raisins and a warm jacket.

Gabriel braced himself for freezing conditions as he climbed several dozen feet into a sycamore tree in Oxford's Bonn Square in a bid to disrupt redevelopment work.

The 34-year-old, who would not give his last name, was helped by rough sleepers to construct a makeshift shelter in the tree from planks of wood, a metal sign and some plastic sheeting. One also gave him a fur-lined leather flying jacket to keep out the cold.

And, after months of planning, Gabriel began his protest at 2am yesterdayThurs - claiming Oxford City Council was only launching the £1.5m project to rid the area of tramps. Speaking to the Oxford Mail from the tree, he said: "I am just trying to preserve our trees.

"They are 100-year-old trees and they want to chop them down in five minutes. Over my dead body.

"I have been planning this for a little while - as soon as I knew when work would start. It's the last piece of grass in central Oxford and they want to put stone there."

However, Gabriel insisted there was another motive behind the council's plans. He said: "They do not want vagrants and dogs there, that's all it is - they are willing to pay £1.5m for that.

"People like tourists love sitting up here on the grass."

He said he had previously slept rough in the square, but was currently living with his girlfriend in Kidlington. He said: "My great-uncles used to come here and drink. I can remember from when I was a youngster people coming here enjoying themselves."

Vicky Brandon, of Thames Valley Police, said: "We will allow the work to go ahead safely, but when it comes to him obstructing then we will bring in a team to try to get him down."

Oxford City Council spokesman Louisa Dean said five trees, including the sycamore, would be felled.

She said: "While we have some sympathy, we have considered very carefully whether we could design a scheme that could retain the trees.

"But when that could not be achieved we have ensured the scheme involves installing seven new semi-mature trees."

The plans also include new sandstone surfacing, benches, bins and lights.

Michael Crofton-Briggs, the city council's head of planning, said the order of the work had been changed to accommodate the protest without creating any overall delay.

He said: "I am disappointed that there is somebody there, but it is something that in our planning we had seen might be a possibility."