A Sandys resident has criticised Government for excessive culling of trees and vegetation in the parish.

Craig Mayor said that much of the work currently being done in Somerset was excessive and ruined the unique character of the area.

And he claimed crews were indiscriminately cutting back beautiful trees near his home opposite Hog Bay in Middle Road, Sandys. But the Ministry of Works has defended its policy saying the practice is governed by statute and crews need to do a comprehensive job in the interests of safety.

A spokesman said: “Under the Public Lands Act ‘vegetation of any kind, or any part thereof, which abuts or encroaches upon, or falls upon or overhangs the highway or is within two metres of the edge of the highway in such manner as to be in the opinion of the Minister, dangerous or obstructive of the vision of, or gravely inconvenient to, persons using the highway’ is a statutory nuisance and hence can be removed.

“The crews can only get to an area possibly twice a year so if the Ministry of Public Works don’t do a comprehensive job to start off it soon grows back and becomes a hazard. The Minister does not believe she should interfere with the expert opinion of the crews who have to do the pruning.”

Mr Mayor, whose family has lived on the property since 1832, told The Royal Gazette: “In a country in which vegetation is threatened by development this national Works & Engineering policy is a practice that is extremely harmful to our roadside beauty and neighbourhood charm.

“We need to preserve beautiful trees that do not threaten traffic or power lines.

“The Government must not be permitted to indiscriminately destroy these beautiful trees just because they are so large and old that they overhang the roads.”

Mr Mayor’s criticism comes after Government came under fire recently for cutting down a large poinciana tree in Hamilton, for which it later apologised.

He added: “Bermuda can not afford to have all of the beautiful large trees, except cedars, which over hang our roads arbitrarily cut as high as their new cherry picker allows them to reach.

“This one tree was cut 30ft to 40ft feet above the road — well above the 16ft ceiling required to allow large vehicles to pass safely underneath.

“There are no power lines on the same side of the road.

“This tree reached the other side of the road creating great beauty, shade and character. It also helped conceal the less attractive buildings on the other side of the road that are bare of any shrubs/vegetation.”

Mr Mayor claims the tree cutting is making parts of the landscape an eye sore and branded it a “huge waste of manpower, machinery and other resources”.

He said: “Think of all the beautiful large poincianas and other species that over hang and adorn our roads.

“Of course they must be cut to allow a 16’ high passageway underneath for traffic but we must allow them to destroy these trees and the character of our country by cutting them back vertically inside property boundaries.

“Most of these trees took a long time to grow and enhance the character of the roadside with their beauty and welcome shade.

“A policy or practice that sets out to indiscriminately destroy all of the overhanging branches of the trees on our roadsides (as highly as they can reach) has got to be stopped.”