Brighton: Dog walkers say Withdean Woods has been 'churned up'

In March trees were axed at Withdean Woods in Brighton and that prompted people to label the council as “vandals”.

Brighton and Hove City Council said it was safety work due to the risk of diseased ash trees falling on to homes and paths.

But dog walkers believe the area has been made more unsafe by heavy machinery “churning” up the forest and leaving wood lying around.

That discarded wood has now been used for makeshift bridges as people try to avoid the muddy paths.

People have made makeshift bridges to get across the muddy paths left by heavy machinery (Image: The Argus)

“People have made these haphazard bridges out of the fallen timber and debris that the council has left behind,” said Chris Lewis, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years.

“Because the paths are so impassable people are using the debris for makeshift bridges to get across the treacherous paths. People have been hospitalised slipping, my neighbour cut his leg open walking in the forest recently.

“This work has made the park very much unsafe.

“Fifteen years ago this top end of the woods here was thick woodland and full of life. It had owls and bats, that’s all gone because it’s being opened up.

“This aggressive work being done has opened it up so much. Give it another ten or 15 years I’m convinced we won’t have any woods left at the top here.

People wrote 'deforestation' on some of the timber which is due to be taken away (Image: The Argus)

“The way they’re opening the woods out is creating new paths particularly because the existing paths are impassable with a little bit of rain because the paths have been churned up.

"The council will come back in again and identify trees which they say pose a risk and cut them down too."

People said they were angry about the state some of the smaller, seemingly healthy saplings were left in. Saplings were cut in half and some were completely destroyed in the works.

There were also complaints that the work overlapped with the bird nesting season which is officially from February to August.

A sapling which appeared to have been ripped in half and another tree behind it also cut in half (Image: The Argus)

The works were originally scheduled between February 26 and March 11 but continued until the end of March. The council did not address this concern raised.

The council said this “round of essential ash dieback public safety works” was complete but it would be coming back when it is drier to level the paths.

Tim Rowkins, chairman of the council’s city environment, South Downs and the sea committee, said: “The work was undertaken during a period of extremely high rainfall and took longer to complete than originally estimated and resulted in ground disturbance in the works area.

“Some remediation works have taken place to level the main path through the site, but a further visit is required as the site is very wet in places due to the continuing recent rainfall.

Another makeshift bridge as people try to avoid the mud (Image: The Argus)

“Until the ground dries further, sending more machinery into level the paths will only cause more disturbance. When the ground has dried sufficiently, and at the earliest possible opportunity, the contractor will return and complete this element.

“Timber stacks remain on site but will be removed in due course, again once the ground has dried further to prevent more disturbance than has occurred already. All of the timber on site produced from these works is the property of the contractor involved.

“As a result of the council selling the timber to the contractor, the total cost of the felling works for the city is reduced.

“The cost of tackling ash dieback is considerable and additional to the existing tree maintenance throughout the city and the high levels of elm disease we experience annually.”