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Residents of a street in Bristol are being investigated after they hired a tree surgeon and chopped down dozens of trees along a railway line to improve the view from the backs of their house.

Network Rail said the residents of Cromwell Road did not have permission to send the tree surgeon company onto the embankment next to Montpelier station, and said the incident was serious enough for a full-blown investigation to be launched.

Furious residents living nearby have been left shocked after discovering their neighbours had clubbed together to hire a tree surgeon company, and sent them onto Network Rail land on Wednesday and Thursday last week to start cutting down a large swathe of woodland.

The work was done, neighbours claim, to improve the views from the backs of the homes on Cromwell Road, and to allow more light into their rear gardens.

The residents on Cromwell Road are understood to have been asking Network Rail to cut down the trees for years, but after years of being refused, decided to do it themselves anyway.

One former councillor said the trees were a vital part of the landscape in this part of Bristol. They helped to prevent landslips on the steep embankment down to the railway line, and also acted as a noise buffer against the sound of the trains.

Other residents said that the wooded embankment was also home to a set of badgers and a colony of bats.

The Bristol Post understands train drivers first began reporting seeing unauthorised contractors felling trees on the north bank of the cutting between Montpelier station and the entrance to the short tunnel under St Andrew’s Road.

(Image: James Beck)

By the time baffled Network Rail officials visited the site, almost all the trees had been felled, and the trunks left on the embankment by the side of the railway.

If authorised, such work normally requires health and safety plans, supervision from Network Rail to ensure the safe passage of trains is not compromised and, potentially, the stopping or slowing of trains on the line.

None of this happened on Wednesday and Thursday on the Severn Beach Line between Montpelier and Stapleton Road stations – because Network Rail did not know and had not authorised the work.

“We did not give permission for the recent de-vegetation work in Montpelier to be carried out,” a spokesperson for Network Rail said.

“Safety is our priority and nobody is permitted to access the railway unless they have the proper permission.

“We are currently investigating this matter,” he added.

The Post understands between around half a dozen and ten residents of homes in Cromwell Road pooled their resources to hire a local tree surgeon company to cut down the trees that were behind their respective gardens.

This was organised by one resident – landscape gardener and artist Jonty Cutting, who told the Post on Friday he had obtained permission from Network Rail for the work.

“I don’t want to say too much about this,” he said, when contacted. “But we did have permission from Network Rail.”

He said the permission was in the form of an email, but despite repeated requests to forward that email to the Post it has not materialised.

It is understood Network Rail checked a long thread of emails between Mr Cutting and their office in Swindon about the trees on the embankment, and they are confident none of them could be interpreted as permission.

Even if Network Rail had given permission for the work, it would also have required an extensive risk assessment, as well as environmental impact assessment and consultation with all the residents whose homes overlooked the cutting and the embankment.

And, most crucially, it would have needed somebody with the correct track access requirements to oversee the work – and to make sure the safety of passengers on trains was not compromised.

Those living on the other side of the railway line, in homes on St Andrew’s Road, are furious their neighbours appeared to have acted unilaterally. Several spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, for fear of a backlash from their neighbours.

“It looks like a scene of absolute devastation,” said one resident. “We knew nothing about this – they never asked us about it. When we first saw workmen cutting down the trees we were obviously upset, especially when they began cutting all of them down.

“But we never imagined they didn’t have permission to do it. You just assume someone working somewhere so potentially dangerous as the side of a railway line would be authorised and it be official.

“If we’d have known it wasn’t at the time, we would have been straight out there to physically stop it,” she added.

When eventually Network Rail safety engineers were summoned by worried train drivers, angry residents confronted them on Friday morning – before being told the work was unauthorised.

Earlier in the week, while the work was going on, one resident of St Andrew’s Road is understood to have knocked on the doors of the properties involved on Cromwell Road pleading with them to stop the work, but to no avail.

“I went and talked to the people from Network Rail on Friday morning when they first arrived, and they were amazed,” said another resident, who declined to be named. “They said the train drivers were increasingly alarmed to see this work going on, and kept reporting it.

“They were concerned people were trespassing on the line because these guys didn’t have the usual Network Rail orange jackets on,” he added.

Another resident whose house overlooks the woodland site from the south said she was appalled at what had happened.

“They have been asking Network Rail for years to chop those trees down and Network Rail kept saying no, and they’ve gone and done it without permission – it’s appalling,” she said.

“It’s bitterly ironic that they did it to improve their views, but now they’ve left us on the other side with a view of total devastation.

“The worst thing for me is the wildlife that’s going to be affected. There’s badgers living down there, bats in the trees, it’s all going to be badly hit by this,” she said.

Local resident and former councillor Christian Martin said he had been in contact with Network Rail.

“They said they are going to have to send a work team out to clear up, as there are logs threatening to roll onto the track,” he said.

“They will have to remove stumps that won’t grow back and they said they would be seeking to recover the costs from the Cromwell Road residents – which are estimated to be between £25,000 and £30,000.

“The sound cushion the trees provided is now gone, and the integrity of the slope is compromised. Wildlife is displaced, not to mention the exposure to the houses opposite on St Andrew’s Road from Cromwell Road,” he added.