FORMER locals of a Worcester pub were heart-broken to discover a natural landmark known as the kissing trees has gone.

The two ash trees, which formed an arch with their entwined branches outside the former Alma pub in Mill Street, have been felled.

The traditional back-street pub was sold to the King's School last year after the licence expired. The school is preparing to convert it into a pre-prep school for 40 to 50 pupils. St Alban's, one of King's junior schools, is opposite the old Alma building.

City councillor Mike Layland, who grew up in Diglis Road, said he was deeply saddened to find the trees gone. "We have lost another landmark in Worcester. I can remember seeing them when I was a young boy."

Helen O'Keefe, of Mill Street, said she was upset the trees had gone, as well as two trees in the car park and a row of rose bushes.

Peter Telfer, also from Mill Street, was also sorry that they had been felled. "They were two trees that grew together many years ago. I have lived here for 20 years and I was used to seeing them coming into leaf each year.

"They formed an arch you walked through to get into the pub."

King's School bursar Galen Bartholemew said the school had an expert who trained at Pershore College of Horticulture look at the trees and he found they were diseased.

"Before we carried out the tree work we wrote to Worcester City Council and had a letter back telling us it was in order for us to do the work," he said.

City council assistant planning officer Geoff Poole confirmed the trees were suffering from fungal decay and that the King's School had offered, as part of its application, to replace them somewhere within the school grounds.

Mr Poole said the council aimed to negotiate with the school for four substantial trees to compensate for the loss of the kissing trees.

Mr Bartholemew said the school was keen to forge good relations with the local community and had agreed for residents to use the Alma car park during school holidays to help relieve parking problems in the area.

He said they also hoped the long-term plans for the Alma would include a pull-in area for cars picking up or dropping off pupils at the school to help reduce congestion in the Mill Street area.

Plans for the new pre-prep school are yet to be finalised and submitted to the city council, said Mr Bartholemew.