THE LAST tree on the Victoria Circus roundabout has been chopped down by Southend Council in preparation for a multi-million pound revamp of the junction.

The remaining London Plane tree on the roundabout was removed at 4am today by council contractors.

The council caused outrage in January when contractors chopped down more than 20 trees around the roundabout in the early hours.

After the work, the first stage of the £7 million scheme, there was just the one tree remaining.

Council leader Nigel Holdcroft spoke of his regret at the removal of the London Plane tree and said the council wanted to keep it.

But it has been forced to adjust the project, which is part of the £25m Better Southend initiative, because of BT cables and said this meant having to remove the tree.

Mr Holdcroft said: “In March 2009, prior to the commencement of the Victoria Gateway scheme, the council spoke to all the affected utility companies to establish the extent of their cabling networks in the area.

"On the basis of the information we received at that time, it appeared possible to retain this tree.

“However it was only recently - many months later - that British Telecom provided us with full details of its fibre-optic cabling network and this revealed a very different situation."

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*FULL STORY IN TUESDAY'S ECHO.