At an Ealing Full Council meeting on Tuesday, 14 December Southfield Councillor Andrew Steed asked the Labour Councillor responsible for tree management a number of questions about the management of contractors and why work has still not been done to prune trees in Southfield and across Ealing borough.

In the reply from the Cabinet Member, they admitted that they were forced to change their contractor when there were excessive delays in tree pruning.

Also, it was admitted that the new contractor is failing, meaning that residents may have to wait even longer to get trees pruned.

Southfield Councillor Gary Malcolm said: "After twelve months of complaints from Liberal Democrat councillors, and residents, the Council is failing again after the replacement tree contractor for Southfield is still failing admits Labour after being grilled again by Southfield Liberal Democrat Councillor Andrew Steed.

"The Council need to get a grip on things and sort out these problems. Residents deserve better."