Trees face pruning to make 'slippery' pavement safer

The trees are due to be cut back from Monday

The future of four lime trees in a pedestrianised town centre is in the balance.

The trees, in Church Street, Leatherhead, will have a "hard prune" to stop "slippery residue" falling on the surrounding pavements.

Surrey County Council held a consultation in February to get residents' views on replacing the trees.

Cutting the trees back is an interim measure to prevent them being in full leaf over the summer, the authorities said.

Dave Farmer, owner of Surrey Hills Cycleworks, in Church Street, said the trees were not cut back enough to maintain the box shape which could help with the problem.

He said the trees, planted after improvement works in 2017, were another example of councils “wasting people’s money”.

The lime trees are due to be cut back to make the pedestrian area safer to walk on

In a statement, the council said pruning would have been carried out anyway, but has been brought forward a couple of months.

It added: "Surrey County Council and Mole Valley District Council have considered taking this step to ensure that potentially slippery residue produced when the trees are in full leaf during the warmer months is not dropped onto the surrounding pavement."

Mole Valley could not confirm the cost of the trees, with the improvement works being a joint project between the councils and funding from other sources.