COUNCIL workers will cut back foliage across Hyndburn in a bid to save money, it was revealed.

Parks boss Ken Moss said shrubs and bushes will be all but chopped down in areas outside of parks and beauty spots because the council can no longer afford to maintain them.

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He spoke after Oswaldtwistle resident Julie Wiggs, 47, slammed the council for chopping down foliage screening her home from a nearby railway station.

Cllr Moss said: “We are cutting back foliage in areas where it is not enhancing it, it’s just there. People won’t be happy but it will be happening more and more.

“Resources will be concentrated on making good areas nicer, which is more sensible and economical.”

Julie, a self-employed virtual office assistant, said residents in Blossom Avenue were left fuming after council workers chopped down foliage separating their homes from the Church and Oswaldtwistle railway station, where volunteers from the local Rotary club have been working to make it one of the best kept on the East Lancashire line.

She said: “This has adversely impacted me and my neighbours, who have lost our privacy and now wave at the people on the trains that go by from our sofas. The noise from the trains is louder and there is the smell.

“Many of us fed the great variety of birds that nested in the hedge. Very few birds have been seen since. It is heart-breaking.”

Leader of the opposition at Hyndburn Council, Cllr Peter Britcliffe, said: “The screening was extremely important to residents in Blossom Avenue.

“I have copied an email to the chief executive and deputy chief executive with the hope that something can be done to retrieve the situation.”

Cllr Moss said: “The bushes were trimmed back in response to Network Rail’s safety concerns about them overhanging onto the railway line.

“To undertake the work in the most cost effective way, they were pruned right down so maintenance wouldn’t be required year on year.”

Rotary Club spokesman Michael Jackson said: “The club asked the council to cut back the foliage because it was encroaching onto the platform.“We left it in their hands, not realising they would decimate it.“The last thing we wanted to do was upset the residents, we want their backing.”

Nobody from Network Rail was available for comment.