A MONIFIETH councillor has pledged to investigate after a resident near the town’s Seaview Primary claimed builders felled a large section of the school’s Millennium Forest over the weekend.

Allan Booth claims he had to climb a gate into the school grounds—which is undergoing redevelopment—to stop the trees being chopped down on Saturday morning.

He told The Courier, “It was such a big machine they were using that by the time I dashed down from my house the majority of them had gone already.

“They did stop when I asked them to and agreed to wait until Monday morning to check what the situation is.

“These are trees that have been flourishing for the last eight years and it is a great shame they have gone.

“I find it an incredible coincidence that these guys have been on site for two weeks and this happens when it’s still dark at 7am on a Saturday morning.”

He added, “It did say in the original planning application that the majority of trees would be retained.”

When presented with the information last night, Monifieth and Sidlaw councillor Frank Ellis said he would begin investigating the matter today.

He said, “I intend to make inquiries on what the exact position with this is. If a resident is saying 75% of the trees have been cleared that is a horrendous butchering and is unacceptable.”

The Millennium Forest consists of around 50 silver birch trees planted in 2000 as part of Angus Council’s Millennium project.

Councillors backed proposals for a new two-stream school and nursery in October last year after the poor condition of the existing building was highlighted.