COUNCIL officials have stepped in to stop tree felling on a piece of woodland in west Christchurch that locals fear is being prepared for future housing development.

The site bounded by homes in Arcadia Road and Albion Road was part of the rear garden of the Fairmile Hotel, until the land was severed from the pub curtilage when the lease was reassigned by owners Enterprise Inns last month.

Town hall planners say there have been no approaches from developers.

But neighbours were alarmed when without warning men and machines moved on to the site on Tuesday to begin clearing the land.

Once used as a pub garden and children's play area, the strip of land has become overgrown and local residents claim it has become a habitat for a variety of wildlife including bats, foxes, slow worms and stag beetles.

Alerted by anxious neighbours, Christchurch council tree warden Carolyn McPhie promptly visited the site and served an emergency tree preservation order on the land - but her intervention came too late to prevent one mature oak being felled and another severely mauled.

One long-time neighbour said: "Ever since I have known it the land has just been left and people used to walk through there to the pub until it became too overgrown.

"It is only a few oaks and scrubland, but it is a nice little nature reserve. Our worry is that we will have a big block of flats there," she said.

A spokesman for Midland-based Enterprise Inns told the Daily Echo: "Prior to marketing the area of undeveloped land at the rear of the pub we wanted to clear up the very overgrown and untidy site in order to make it more presentable to potential purchasers."