FELIXSTOWE: Having stood guard along the main gateway into Felixstowe for eight decades, some of the resort’s oldest trees are being felled, watched sadly by residents.

Ravaged by disease, the horse chestnuts are dead and dying – and must come down to stop spreading their killer larvae to other trees nearby and avoid rotting branches falling and hitting cars.

Beatrice Avenue may never look the same, but councillors have pledged that new trees will be planted in the town’s best-known avenue.

It is taking contractors five days to fell the seven 80-year-old horse chestnuts and two much younger alders and part of the road has been closed with traffic diverted.

No-one was shouting timber – literally or metaphorically, and many residents were resigned to the fact that there was no alternative.

Jenny Bugg, of Beatrice Avenue, said: “I and many of my neighbours have been concerned about the condition of some trees for quite a few years.

“We have watched them deteriorate and despite some being pollarded, their state is such that they really need to be removed.

“The council has been in contact with the residents at all times and I do not think that there have been any complaints from any of us because we see the condition of these trees on a daily basis and the ones being removed are well and truly dead.”

Nick Hammond commissioned his own specialist survey of the specimens after being convinced they were still alive.

But experts he brought in agreed with the county council’s tree surgeons’ findings.

“As soon as we walked up and down the avenue and the tree surgeon pointed out the various tell-tale signs it was quite clear that these trees are in a bad way,” said Mr Hammond, of High Beach, Felixstowe.

“A lot of them substantially are dead and some of the ones which are not being cut down are also looking in a bad way and could need to go fairly soon. It is a great shame.”

Council officials say replacement trees – not horse chestnuts – will be planted in Beatrice Avenue.

? What do you think of the felling? Write to Your Letter, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk