Angry villagers say they have been given "a ringside view" of a North Yorkshire slaughterhouse after a fence which screened it from sight was hacked down.

Residents of Carrs Meadow at Escrick, near York, were stunned to see contractors cutting down the fence with chainsaws early on Monday morning, leaving the gateway and compound of A Traves & Son's abattoir exposed.

They can now clearly see animals being brought into the compound and herded into the abattoir.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "It's just hideous. I think it's disgusting that we've been lumped with this view. We can see workers in bloodstained overalls, the lot."

Another added: "It's like a ringside view of what goes on in the compound."

But the residents say they are not attacking the abattoir, as the fence did not belong to Traves.

It stood on land owned by the Escrick Park Estate, which is owned by the Forbes Adam family. The neighbours believe the fence was installed two years ago, on a small meadow between their homes and the abattoir, to shield the view through the compound gates.

They received no notification that the fence was to be chopped, nor by whom, nor any explanation as to why. The fence has since been left derelict on the ground.

Neighbour Norman Bell said: "I don't have an objection to the abattoir; it has been there for years and we have lived with it.

"But we don't know the intention behind removing the fence, and we don't know what's going to be done here."

Selby District Councillor Liz Casling, who represents Escrick, said a solution should be worked out between the estate and the abattoir.

"It would seem to be a private matter between them," she added.

"But I know that if I lived on Carrs Meadow, I wouldn't be at all happy to see all that going on. It is a great shame, and there should be something there to screen the view.

"But as it is the estate's land, there is little the council can do."

Terry Wilson, chairman of Escrick Parish Council, said that if residents were concerned, they should contact him.

"It may be that it was damaged by accident, and cut down as a result, in which case it should be put right quickly," he added.

Charles Forbes Adam said he had no comment to make.

A spokesman for Traves & Son also declined to comment.

Updated: 16:08 Friday, June 15, 2001