Neighbours in a quiet close slammed council workers after they said nearly 25 trees in the street were ‘hacked’ down before their eyes.
But town hall bosses said the move was planned environmental management - based on consultation with residents during the previous year.
Andrew Jagger-Walker, 38, who has lived in Avon Gardens, in Cottam, Preston, for eight years, said he had no idea the work was happening.
He took photographs of workmen cutting down 24 trees, which he said were around 10-years-old, and a large amount of hedgerow.
He said: “It’s an absolute disgrace. They’ve just shredded them.
“I just haven’t a clue why they have done this. It looks horrendous.
“I went out and asked them why they were doing it and they just said ‘we’re cutting them down’.
“We’ve had no notice from the council to say this was happening and nobody from the council has returned my calls.”
Preston Council said the work was coppicing - a traditional method of woodland management, which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down.
In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level.
In subsequent growth years new shoots will emerge and after several years the coppiced tree is ready to be harvested and the cycle begins again.
A council spokesman said: “The trees have been pruned as part of a wider management programme and will regenerate and grow back.
“This follows consultation with local residents.
“We accept we should have notified residents that this work was taking place.”
Mr Jagger-Walker, who stood as an unsuccessful Conservative candidate for Ingol in Preston Council’s elections last year, said he had not been consulted about the work and neither had Lea Ward’s Tory councillor Julie Buttle.
He said: “All our neighbours are very upset and quiet distressed at what they have done.
“They were beautiful trees, I’ve got pictures of them in the snow.
I can’t believe they have hacked at them - all you can see now from the house is a dirty, muddy, empty space.”
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