A new Facebook page has been created by local photographer, Caz Holbrook who is keen to save the beech tree at the Prospect which lost a large branch before Christmas.

The ‘Save the Prospect tree project’ aims to persuade Herefordshire Council not to remove the entire ancient beech tree. A spokesman for Balfour Beatty Living Places told the Ross Gazette: “The tree in The Prospect had a branch removed for safety reasons at the end of 2015. As a result of this, it left the rest of the tree unstable. Therefore, due to the risk it posed to the public, the tree is having to be removed.”

The campaign group hopes to persuade Balfour Beatty Living Places to leave a sizeable chunk of the tree so that an awesome feature can be carved out of it. Ideas at the moment include honouring both John Kyrle and Thomas Blake. They were both huge benefactors to Ross and gave the Prospect to the people of Ross-on-Wye.

A new idea, which came from a discussion with Ed Elliott, a tree carver, is to create another figure looking out over the Wye, he has suggested that she could be the ‘Angel of the Wye’.

A fundraising page will be set up when there is more definite news about the possibility of retaining part of the tree and using it for a sculpture project.