A year-long controversy over the felling of three trees in a Cornish town has ended with Cornwall Council saying it has made changes to how it deals with such public works in the future.

A battle by residents and environmental campaigners in Falmouth was lost last week when Cornwall Council chopped down three much-loved street trees on Trelawney Road in the town.

The work to cut down the trees was not without incident. One of the lead protesters was dropped by police officers while being carried away from the scene, banging her head on the pavement, after attempting to get through security fencing to stop the chop.

The proposal to fell has been mired in controversy with different reasons being given for why the 60-year-old lime trees had to be removed from Trelawney Road.

It was eventually revealed that the council had entered into an out-of-court settlement with the owners of a neighbouring property, to the suggested tune of £107,000 – a figure which has never been denied by the council.

A ‘secret’ confidential agreement has meant that the council has never been able to disclose the exact reasons why the trees had to be cut down, which has angered locals.

Now, Cornwall Council’s leader has spoken about the matter, which he has described as “not ideal”. Cllr Leigh Frost told a cabinet meeting yesterday (Wednesday, December 17) that steps are now in place for the council to do things differently if similar circumstances arise.

“This was a situation that I and my cabinet inherited when we formed the administration and I’ve come to understand the strength of feeling from local residents as the months have passed,” he said.

“The bottom line was that we were legally required to remove those trees. We had to manage the outcome and it’s fair to say that it’s not been easy because of the process involved.

“The issue arose from public works forming part of a settlement to a legal claim, which also contained a standard legal clause making the arrangement confidential.

“This affected the way the situation has been managed which has not been ideal to say the least. Our strategic director Phil Mason made this point at a public meeting two weeks ago.”

He added: “I made it a priority to look into what happened and I have asked the team to assure me that lessons will be learned.

“They have assured me that steps are now in place to ensure that any proposals of this nature involving public works must be considered and approved by the monitoring officer or deputy monitoring officer.

“We know that people will be saddened to see the trees taken down. The team has taken great care in selecting new trees and the work they are doing to dig new tree pits will give them the best possible chance to flourish when they are planted.”

Since last week’s felling, Falmouth Town Council has demanded a full breakdown of all costs, including policing, security and contractor fees for the felling operation.

Stop the Chop! protesters says the costs – and the injury to one of their members, Debs Newman – could have been avoided entirely had Cornwall Council shared, in the public interest, the evidence relied upon to justify felling the trees.