THE lopping of Scots pines on the edge of Dyson Perrins High School playing fields was brought to a halt by a tree preservation order last week.

A member of the public alerted Malvern Hills District Council's landscape officer Mike Gregory to the work being carried out on land bordering Michael Crescent, Malvern.

"I went to investigate and found that five or six of the trees had been topped, leaving a stump about 5m high and a few side branches. It was very poor pruning practice," he said.

"About 18 to 20 of the trees were untouched and a tree preservation order was made the same day, to prevent any more being topped."

The work had been authorised by headmaster Peter Buchanan, after a complaint, passed on to him by Malvern's town clerk, Stuart McDonough, that the trees were blocking out light from houses in Michael Crescent.

"I had a look at the trees and saw that they were enormously tall and decided to get something done about it," said Mr Buchanan.

"The intention was to lop them to about half their height in order to maintain good relations with our neighbours."

However, Mr Gregory said the trees were to the west of the Michael Crescent properties and he did not think they were blocking out light.

He said there had also been complaints about dropping of needles, but this was something to be expected when there were trees close to properties, he said.

"I would consider other works might be reasonable, such as crown lifting, or removing some of the lower branches that have been suppressed and died, because the trees are so close together," he said.

"Two or more trees in the row could probably be removed altogether."

Resident Derek Jackson complained that Malvern Hills District Council had not cleared up the debris from the trees recently.

"There's a terrible mess of pine needles and cones over the road and path," he said.

MHDC's head of client services, Paul Sobczyk, said: "We clean away pine needles from the footway with our normal litter cleansing operation."

Letters about the preservation order have been sent to the school and to neighbours living opposite the trees, whose comments or objections should be received by September 8, when the Council will decide whether to confirm the order.