RESIDENTS of Dorstone are angry that a local landmark has been ripped out – though they claim it posed no danger.

The landmark, a historic yew tree, at the junction of the B4348, Pentre Lane and Spoon Lane, was removed by contractors on March 17, using a crane with a tree handler and a lorry.

Neighbour Jack Sloper explained that he had parked his car under the tree earlier in the day in a bid to save it.

“The contractors asked me to move and I said no,” he said. “The contractors called the police, who came and, I think, saw my side, and the contractors drove off.”

But later, when the tree was unattended, they returned and not only chopped the tree down but uprooted it entirely using a crane-mounted grabber.

The villagers believe it was a healthy tree and that they’d only received a letter the previous week stating that it was coming down, as it ‘posed an imminent danger’.

Nearby resident John Morgan said: “It feels like a rushed job. The tree was in no danger of tipping over.”

Arboricultural consultant and chairman of Herefordshire Tree Forum, Jerry Ross said that from images he’d seen the tree appeared to be about 150 years old, while the erosion of the bank ‘looked pretty much the same in 2009 as it did in 2024’.

“It appears a perfectly acceptable, inoffensive specimen has been felled, with the very roots that formerly served to hold up the bank wrenched out of the ground, leaving it damaged and no doubt requiring work to stabilise it,” he said.

“And the not inconsiderable costs will no doubt be borne by the taxpayer.”

Herefordshire Council have been asked to comment but hadn’t replied at the time of going to press.