An environmentalist is feeling stumped and upset after a handful of mature trees in Petersfield town centre were quietly felled.

The axe recently fell on two specimens in Central Car Park along with a further pair along the Criddle stream and a multi-stem sycamore off Hylton Road.

Melanie Oxley has accused East Hampshire District Council of carrying out the work without giving notice to civic bodies and asked if the felling took place at night because of a lack of witnesses.

She said: “It’s almost as if the work was carried out clandestinely.

“I believe we should, where at all possible, save every tree from destruction unless there is a pressing need to remove it on safety grounds.”

An arboricultural officer confirmed the felled pair at Central Car Park are on council-owned land but could not verify the location or ownership of the others mentioned.

He said the two trees, which did not have a preservation order, posed “a considerable risk” to car park users as they showed signs of distress and were heavily dead wooded.

They were brought down “in a controlled and managed way” without complaints from the public during a quieter period on February 16 and not overnight as suggested.