Outrage over 'magnificent' 300-year-old oak trees being chopped down to make way for housing development in Milton Keynes

Tree lovers are venting their fury over the felling of several historic 300-year-old oak trees on the site of a huge new housing development.

The trees are described as magnificent and three times bigger than the famous former Midsummer Oak, which had an entire shopping centre built around it in a bid to preserve its history.

They stood alongside a public footpath on the site of the MK East urban extension development, where outline planning permission has been granted to developers Berkeley to build 4,600 homes. The triangular piece of agricultural countryside lies to the south of Newport Pagnell and west of Moulsoe.

Clearance of the site to prepare the infrastructure has now started and is being carried out by St James development company, which is part of the massive Berkeley Group. The company says it had planning consent to fell the trees.

Resident David Alderman walks home from work every evening along the footpath from Newport Pagnell to Willen, and he was horrified to discover the oaks have been chopped down.

“These trees were magnificent... I have admired them for many years and now they are gone. I’m really shocked this has happened,” he said.

David added: “There was an amazing area cordoned off by tape with these amazing ancient oak trees - I'm talking Woburn Abbey size trees.... They were breathtaking.

"I thought they were protected because they were cordoned off. But they have been pulled down by what looks like heavy plant earth moving equipment. This must be totally illegal.

“I'm wondering why Milton Keynes would design a whole shopping centre around a oak tree one-third of the size of these trees and then chop these magnificent trees down. It just doesn't make sense.”

David said the oak trees were ”tucked away” in the corner of the site and could easily have been preserved.

He posted his rant on the nextdoor neighbourhood app and a flood of residents joined his protest.

One woman wrote: “Makes my heart absolutely sink. I’ll be writing my letter to the council today. Come on everybody, let’s make our voices heard. We’ve got to stand up for nature we can’t live without it.”

Another wrote: “Old oak trees are meant to be protected. - this is a crime.”

But one nextdoor user was more pragmatic, saying: “I’m afraid it’s the times we are living in people need homes and land is sold to the highest bidders and they are only interested in making money, not conservation.”

A spokesman for St James told the Citizen today: “The groundworks have been undertaken in accordance with the planning consent. The project will result in hundreds of thousands of new trees being planted.”

We are still awaiting a comment from MK Council.

The new MK East development will include four new primary schools, a large secondary school, a community health hub, a sports pavilion and a ‘district scale’ children’s play space and visitor centre. A new bridge over the M1 is being built to link the urban extension to the city centre.

Bloor Homes were last month given planning permission to build 800 of the homes, but the felled trees are not on their site.