A DEVELOPER wants to remove protected poplar trees from a Kempsey site only nine months after a tree preservation order (TPO) was put on them.

Prowting Homes was given permission in April to build 11 homes at The Vicarage and 15 at Old Road South and now wants to fell the trees.

The preservation order was confirmed in March, but Prowting wants to replace them with a more "suitable" species, saying the six poplars are unstable in high winds and one has already blown over.

Kempsey parish councillors, who had just agreed to another TPO on a yew tree at 17 Squires Walk, were dismayed at the proposal to override the one at Old Road South.

"What's the point of putting a TPO on them in the first place if, in a couple of months, we're going to say it's all right to chop them down?" asked Rebecca Wynn.

Vice chairman Ray Ellis said he felt "a bit cheated" as the planning application had been approved subject to an agreement that the trees would be preserved.

"Now it all goes by the board," he said.

On the suggestion of Pete Copson, members agreed that the trees should be removed only if an independent expert agreed that they were dangerous.