PEOPLE have been left puzzled and upset after green-fingered vandals used secateurs to give trees in Upton an unscheduled trim.

About 20 trees in the riverside town had their branches lopped without explanation.

The newly-planted trees, which included three rare disease-resistant English elms, were put in around the town’s sports fields by the Environment Agency as part of landscaping for a new flood defence bund.

The damage was so neat that Upton Town Council, which owns the land, at first wondered if it was perhaps planned maintenance work that they had not been informed about. But town clerk Jo Adams said: “We contacted the Environment Agency and they knew nothing more than we did, so it is definitely vandalism. We had wondered because the branches have not just been snapped off, it is clear someone has gone out systematically with secateurs and done this.”

She said several trees had also been “hacked away at” at the bottom, while a nearby fence was also damaged and a section cut out of a style.

“It’s heart-breaking really, because we’re trying to improve the environment and promote trees that are becoming increasingly rare and someone goes and does something like this.”

Upton’s mayor Andrea Morgan said: “I find it almost unbelievable this has happened. We’re trying to get things up and running for the town and to make sure that it is there for future generations and someone goes and does something like this.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “The vandalism is incredibly neat.

We will be keeping an eye on the trees and monitoring them. We’re hopeful what has been done will not kill them, although they will take longer to grow.”

Police are investigating. Anyone with information should call 101 quoting 22CC/26851K/12.