Plans to cut down dozens of silver birches beside a railway line have come under fire from an angry resident.

Network Rail informed residents last week that it will start clearing vegetation and trees at Tattenham Corner on Monday in order to extend the sidings by 440 metres.

The clearance work will allow Southern Rail to park four trains in the extended sidings at the station.

A resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was shocked to receive a letter about the work on Friday.

She said: "Network Rail have given all local residents 10 days' notice. It’s crafty the way they have done this. They are trying to rush it through."

She added: "I think it’s sad. They are cutting everything down and not thinking about the environment or how they could better approach it."

Your Local Guardian:

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "We have written to residents affected by this vegetation management work to outline our plans, which include removing a number of trees to allow us to bring former sidings back into use.

"These will be used to stable trains and is part of our continued programme to maintain and improve the existing rail infrastructure for passengers.

"Immediate work will take place during the day but we have given around three weeks’ notice to carry out the work which has to be completed, for safety reasons, overnight.

"We apologise for the disruption this work may cause but we will do all we can to keep noise to a minimum."

The first phase of clearance work is scheduled to end on Friday, December 20.

Your Local Guardian:

To raise concerns or ask questions visit www.networkrail.co.uk/contactus or call 08457 11 41 41.