A HOUSEHOLDER has complained after Oxford City Council allowed one of the area’s tallest trees to be felled.

David Hearn, 47, from Cardigan Street, Jericho, pictured inset, said he was stunned to learn the authority did not need conservation permission, as the 65ft tree, pictured, was in the garden of a council home.

The area became a conservation area earlier this year. That places more controls on development. A spokesman for Oxford City Council said: “We are removing a large poplar tree from a council property as it is getting too large for the garden.”

“As this is a council-owned tree within a residential property we are exempt from the conservation area under the Town and Country Planning Act. We will plant another tree in a more suitable location.”