An environmentalist has vowed to make a sit-down protest to save further trees being felled in a Petersfield car park.

Melanie Oxley vented her anger to Petersfield Town Council about unscheduled felling and tree work at Central Car Park.

The PeCAN member claimed that trees had been felled or cut without warning or notification and wanted to know what efforts were being made to replace them.

“Why are the trees at Waitrose car park being pulled down?” she asked during the Annual Meeting of the Town.

“They’re coming along in the evenings and cutting them down. They should let people know, surely? But there’s been no notification whatsoever.”

She added: “As soon as a tree is being cut down I’ll sit under it to protect it, then.”

Tree works are the responsibility of EHDC with Petersfield Town Council also asking similar questions.

“I can’t tell you why they’re being cut down and Cllr Anne Stephenson asked that question of EHDC about six weeks ago,” said PTC’s Cllr Jamie Matthews.

“We’ve asked EHDC why they’ve cut the trees down and whether they know what is going to replace them.”

A spokesperson for EHDC said the trees removed were in a “poor condition” and posed a “risk to people using the car park” but did not elaborate on timings.

The spokesperson said: “EHDC is responsible for the care and management of trees on council-owned land.

“As part of this work we prune or remove dead or hazardous trees.

“The next step will be to look into the viability of replacing the trees, either in their original position or elsewhere in the car park.

“Once that decision is made, we will make residents aware of our plans.”

Tree warden Robin Hart also flagged up the state of a Cappadocian maple at the Heath to PTC.