IT'S not the festive treat you might hope for - but this unhappy tree is all that Heslington has to help celebrate Christmas.

For the village's Yuletide tree is lying on a grass verge adorned with seven jam jars and some tealights, the latest casualty in a war over parking problems.

Geoffrey Sawyer, who usually puts the tree in place, has refused to do so in protest against traffic calming measures and parking restrictions introduced in the village earlier this year.

They had been passed by the parish council, although some members protested.

Mr Sawyer said: "I am against this parking business, which is not good for the village.

"I am so annoyed that I told the parish council that I would not be putting the tree up. It is a protest."

Mr Sawyer runs a haulage business in the village, and claims it is difficult for his lorries to turn out of the depot.

Parish council member Robert Pearcy said: "A lot of villagers aren't happy with what's been going on. It has made driving in Heslington terrible."

Ian Pawson, landlord of the Deramore Arms, said that the trees were "embarrassing" and that the display was "a farce."

"Heslington is not like a village any more," he said.

"What with the parking restrictions and double yellow lines, the problems keep coming round full circle.

"The tree usually goes up on the Saturday after the students leave, which this year was December 16."

Valerie Foote, chairman of Heslington Parish Council, said she had not realised Mr Sawyer was deliberately refusing to put up the tree as a protest.

She said: "The parish council was told by Mr Sawyer that he didn't have anyone to help him put up the tree and that was what I believed.

"There has obviously been a lot of feeling about the traffic, but I think it's a shame that the tree hasn't gone up because of it.

"We did manage to get a small tree up and we did manage to put some glass jars with night lights in them so that we could hold our annual carol singing event around it and keep the spirit going."

But Mrs Foote said that better preparations would be made next year.

And she said she was hopeful that people would get used to the traffic measures.

She said: "People who were used to parking anywhere in Heslington are quite surprised by the new measures, but it was intolerable before, and we, as the parish council, have been implored to do something about parking."