A petition calling for a plan to cut down trees in Aberystwyth to be axed has been handed in to Ceredigion council.

An online petition, signed by 380 people, objects to Aberystwyth Town Council’s proposal to cut down five poplar and 33 cypress trees at the rear of Cambridge Terrace and Queens Road.

The petition claims there is “no adequate justification” for felling the trees, but the Cambrian News has previously reported that the plan was because “roots are said to be affecting homes and gardens and could invalidate the council’s insurance”.

The petition, started by Alan Hewson, titled ‘Stop the needless destruction of Aberystwyth trees’, states: “These poplars are extremely valuable for a variety of moths and butterflies and for many birds, and provide habitat for increasingly rare hedgehogs, which are protected by UK and EC legislation/regulation.”

The rows of trees faced being chopped down by the town council because their roots are said to be affecting homes and gardens and could invalidate the council’s insurance.

The poplar trees, along the Cambridge Terrace alleyway close to gardens behind houses in Queens Road, have seen “substantially increased root activity”, the town council said, and that residents have been asking for something to be done since 2015 while “getting increasingly frustrated and anxious”.

Some residents have called for a tree protection order to be put in place to save the four silver poplars and one Lombardy-type poplar, as well as the row of Monterey Cypress trees to the rear of the North Road Clinic, which are being felled for “health and safety reasons” due to frequent storm damage.

The five poplars are around 36 years old, but the council insists they “should not have been planted in this location, in such close proximity to houses”.

See this week’s Aberystwyth paper for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now