WORK is under way to tidy up the two rows of trees which line York’s Parliament Street.

Tree surgeons have been working high in the branches of the London plane trees to carry out the five-yearly work, known as pollarding.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: “The trees were planted in 1992 as part of the Parliament Street redevelopment. “They are pollarded every five years to encourage healthy growth, enable daylight to reach Parliament Street and for health and safety reasons to stop the branches getting too heavy.”

The many branches taken from the trees will be turned in to chippings and distributed to allotments.

Pollarding is a common practice in tree management and is used as an effective way to control growth and spread without harming the tree.