Nature lovers who forked out £30,000 to help a council buy an ancient woodland are furious after the authority announced plans to cut down 152 trees - over health and safety fears.

The 'Friends of Becky Addy Wood' used their own cash to help Bradford-on-Avon Town Council in Wiltshire purchase the land for £45,000.

It meant the historic 10-acre woodland, first recorded in Saxon times, was preserved for generations.

But just two years later the nature group are “dismayed” by the council’s application to fell over 100 of its trees.

The authority has applied to the Forestry Commission for a licence to fell 152 - claiming each as 'an imminent risk' to walkers.

It says it has to cut them down to manage Ash dieback disease and they ''might fall or drop limbs on users of the adjacent road and public footpath through the woodland''.

But says the council have ignored advice from the government, the Woodland Trust, UK Wildlife Trusts and the Tree Council on managing Ash dieback.

The group says said the council's plans to fell the trees will cause "irreversible damage" to the small woodland and its wildlife - including rare bats and nesting birds.