RESIDENTS have been saddened to see trees brightening a square dying off after council resurfacing cut off the water supply to their roots.
Trees in The Mount, Acton, have been slowly dying since the area was redeveloped and resurfaced about six years ago at a cost of more than £120,000.
Now six of them, which run in a small avenue alongside St Mary's Church, have had to be cut down and others may have to follow them.
Sara Nathan, chairwoman of the Churchfield Road Residents' Association, said: "It just seems such a shame to spend all that money on a scheme people in the community really didn't want and to do it in such a way the trees eventually die. Without trees the area really is very brutal.
But Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for environment, said more work would be carried out to improve the area thanks to a £500,000 grant and the trees would be replaced once the problem was rectified.
He said: "We've secured half a million pounds from the Outer London Fund to invest in Acton Town Centre. This will make an enormous difference and will build on previous work carried out a few years back.
"The money will primarily focus on lighting, urban realm and public art improvements and the plans will be shared with the local community as they develop.
"The work is due to start early next year after a series of local consultations and will be delivered by next spring.
"Some trees on Kings Road have been removed as they had died and we're looking into whether an irrigation problem might have caused this. The plan is to replace these trees after we've sorted out any irrigation problems."
