PALM trees that were ruthlessly hacked down by contractors employed by Southend Council have been replaced – with trees half the size of the originals.

Three out of four of the 20-year-old cordyline palm trees, near the statue of Queen Victoria, in Clifftown Parade, Southend, were chopped down at the beginning of December, after one of the trees was claimed to have been diseased.

All four would have been lost if it hadn’t been for the intervention of concerned residents.

Now Patsy Link, of the environmental group Saxon King in Priory Park, claims the council has not replaced the trees properly.

She said: “The council, under fierce pressure from the public, promised they would replace them like for like, and what did we get?

“Three trees half the size of the originals.

“In anticipation of the council’s next predictable attempt to justify their ecological vandalism, none of these trees are diseased; they are simply in the way of the council’s fetish for steel and concrete.”

One of the residents who intervened in the cutting down of the trees, John Farrin, 55, of Clifftown Parade, complained to Southend Council.

He said: “The replacement trees are not as good as the previous ones, but they are acceptable.

“They are smaller than the ones that were originally here. It’s a shame they chopped the other ones down to stumps in the first place.

“I appreciate it only took a couple of weeks, especially over Christmas, which in modern times is more than quick.”

Ian Brown, Southend Council’s park management officer, said: “These replacement palm trees were sourced from a specialist nursery.

“They are of a similar size and the same habit and form as the original ones.”