Plymouth cuts down trees to root out alfresco sex

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The last time Plymouth trees were felled there was a national outcry, the council leader resigned and Labour swept to power in the local elections.

It should have been safe to assume that the new council would have proceeded with caution after the controversy in March when 110 felled trees were left lying in the city centre. But now local leaders have been criticised for "butchering" more trees near a shelter to prevent people having sex under them on the Plymouth Hoe waterfront.

The council has cut down several cabbage palms and bushes after workers were regularly "having to clean up sex and drug paraphernalia".

Plymouth locals are still seething after an executive decision made by Richard Bingley, who was then the Conservative council leader,