THE Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust has been reprimanded after a tree damaged during a York housing development had to be felled.

The roots of the sycamore tree, situated in a hedgerow on the perimeter of the Derwenthorpe site at Osbaldwick, were damaged when a 20ft section of the hedge was removed a few weeks ago.

Now City of York planning officer Matthew Parkinson has described the incident as “most unfortunate and unacceptable”, and said it had been made very clear to the trust it should not happen again.

He said in an email to Osbaldwick parish council that all work, whether emergency or otherwise, close to trees shown to be retained during the 540-home development should be checked with the council first.

He said sanctions open to the authority in such cases included prosecution, and he revealed this had been discussed.

However, prosecution would have brought its own problems and issues, as the tree had been poorly developed with “significant inherent structural defects that are not manageable”, and it should have been removed prior to the development.

Osbaldwick parish chairman and newly-elected York councillor Mark Warters said yesterday that the trust should apologise to the public and environmentalists for the loss of the tree and hedge, and said he was concerned a precedent may have been set over the future of other trees.

A trust spokeswoman said that, unfortunately, when a section of hedgerow was removed for a sewer diversion, the roots of a poorly developed sycamore tree were damaged.

“We arranged for an aboriculturist to assess the condition of the tree before taking any further action,” she said. “The aboriculturist’s report concluded the tree had ‘significant inherent structural defects’ and should ideally have been removed prior to development, and with the further damage it received during development works, it needed to be removed. Following this advice, we removed the tree as quickly and safely as possible.”

It had been suggested two trees of a variety recommended by the aboriculturist and the local planning authority should be planted in place of the sycamore and the recently removed hedgerow would also be replaced.

The spokeswoman said: “Our director of development will meet more regularly with the council to ensure they are kept up to date at each stage of development, and avoid similar occurrences in the future.”