COUNCILLORS are bracing themselves for a public backlash after they approved the axing of five trees in Market Place, Devizes.

The move met with vociferous opposition and a 2,400-signature petition in protest when it was first proposed last year.

But a meeting of the Devizes town centre joint working party last week approved all the proposed changes to the Market Place, including the removal of three trees around the fountain and two beside the Market Cross.

The working party, made up of town, district and county councillors, said the axed trees will be replaced by four others.

Will Harley, Kennet District Council's landscape and countryside officer, said: "The original trees were planted in 1889, ten years after the fountain was erected and 60 years after the Market Cross went up. From the photographs we have seen, they were particularly scruffy specimens when they were planted.

"Four were planted very close to the fountain and it was decided at an early stage they were going to obscure it, so they did an awful pollarding job. A lot of rot was introduced into the branches."

One tree between the Market Cross and Lloyds Bank is so rotten it is considered to be dangerous and is to be removed within the next few weeks but the others will not go until next October at the earliest.

They will immediately be replaced by four semi-mature London plane trees, set back far enough from the fountain so as not to obscure the statue of Thomas Southeron Estcourt above it.

They will be about eight to nine metres high, three metres higher than the present trees, and will be allowed to grow to approximately 15 metres high.

There are no plans to replace the trees around the Market Cross as these are thought to detract from the monument, but a fifth tree could be planted in the Market Place if a site can be found for it.

Coun Ray Taylor, a member of the joint working party, said: "We accepted the arguments put forward by Will Harley and we did not accept those of the independent assessors hired by a local resident, which we considered superficial.

"The existing trees would have to have been reduced to about five metres in height to make them safe and I don't think anyone would think that a good idea. The replacement trees will make the Market Place look a lot better."

But shopkeeper Tony Duck was surprised by the working party's decision. He said: "I fully expect a strong public reaction against this.

"It is arrogant to fly in the face of public opinion. I understand other trees are to be put there but it is a very expensive and very chancy business.

"We appear to have been failed by our representatives. This issue has not been handled sensitively."

Work to bring in the other changes in the Market Place will begin early in the new year.

They include moving bus stops to the island outside Dillons store, moving the taxi rank to outside HSBC Bank, and improvements to the footpaths in front of the Corn Exchange and NatWest Bank.