Sutton Council is chopping down trees faster than they are being planted, new figures have revealed.

Statistics from Sutton Council show in the financial year 2004-06 the council replanted 19.5 per cent, or 160, of the 861 trees it felled.

In 2007-08 there were 328 trees axed and 192 planted, or 59 per cent.

Sutton Council, which is currently working to reduce its ecological footprint two thirds by 2025, has said it only cuts down trees when a qualified inspector proves they are “decayed, diseased or dying and a danger to the public, or if they are causing property damage”.

However, Conservative opposition spokesman for the environment, Councillor Graham Whitham, said the figures made for “uncomfortable reading”.

He said: “Our trees provide valuable protection against CO2 emissions and beautify Sutton as a borough.

“Our research in the State of Sutton Report shows despite pretending to be green, Sutton’s Liberal Democrat council chiefs have presided over a wholesale massacre of many of our trees, thus squandering our environmental inheritance.

“The committee which I chair has taken action just last week, doing our bit to reverse this decline by spending public realm money on tree replanting.”

Sutton currently has more than 60,000 trees in parks and streets.

The council’s current policy is to plant a minimum of 80 new trees per year.

Sutton Council’s executive member for environment, Councillor Colin Hall, said: “We work extremely hard to preserve [trees] and to increase our total where we can.

“We work hard to attract funding from outside the borough for new trees.

“We will soon be announcing a successful grant bid which will see almost 200 new trees planted in the borough this autumn.”

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