AN outraged York councillor has slammed a developer for chopping down trees at a building site.

Coun Irene Waudby, representing Rawcliffe and Skelton, says Barratt Homes has started to pull down trees and demolish earthworks at its proposed joint housing development at the old Tenneco site in Manor Lane, Rawcliffe.

She claims some of the trees have root networks extending under local houses and provided screening from the "ugly" building site.

But Barratt has rejected her criticism, saying they and City of York Council found the trees poor specimens. Other trees were being protected and more were being planted.

Barratt has already been granted outline planning permission for the site, and has submitted a joint application to build up to 250 homes there.

The Evening Press reported last week that council officers had launched a major new offensive to target a "cavalier" approach by developers to planning conditions. A new enforcement officer has been hired to stamp out planning abuses.

Coun Waudby, who has complained to the council, said: "Barratt's moves to clear the site are particularly controversial, as the council has already recommended in a preliminary report that the present landscaping should be largely maintained in any development that takes place. This action pre-empts the consideration of any detailed plans for the site and ignores the development brief approved by the City of York Council. That brief argued strongly for the retention of landscaping and earthworks to protect existing housing. My main concern is that Barratt has totally failed to keep local residents informed of what they are doing."

A Barratt spokesman said: "The trees in question were examined by the local authority's tree officer.

"They were deemed to be poor specimens not worthy of retention.

"Although we have not been asked to retain any of the trees on the site we will in fact be protecting some of the healthier mature trees and planting more new trees to further enhance the landscaping of the development."

A spokesman for City of York Council said: "We investigate any complaints that are made."

Updated: 16:29 Wednesday, December 11, 2002