DEFIANT councillors have made a united stand against Network Rail in the fight over a group of much-loved trees along an embankment in Coalpit Heath.

A committee of South Gloucestershire Council's planners last week refused to defer the rail company's application to fell numerous protected trees and create four temporary access roads.

Westerleigh Cllr Alan Bracey said: "At last, I hope that Network Rail has got the message.

"For 12 months they have tried to ride roughshod over the feelings and views of local people by being economical with information and facts and sometimes the truth."

Network Rail says the greenery must go for safety reasons and the access roads are needed to stabilise the embankment.

Residents and councillors, however, have long been fighting to save the vegetation, arguing its loss would be devastating for the environment.

The unanimous decision means the trees - and the birds that nest in them - have been saved for the second year running.

Last year rail bosses agreed work could not go ahead whilst birds were nesting. Now the plans have been thrown out because they lacked vital information.

The council's development control committee decided that enough was enough. It agreed that the firm had had long enough to provide detailed plans and refused to consider the application.

Added Cllr Bracey: "I realise that they will be back with a fresh attempt for these accesses but for now they have stated quite openly that they have no plans to commence operations until later in the year."

Network Rail, however, said it had withdrawn the plans before the meeting and intended to resubmit them in time for the planning committee's March meeting. Spokeswoman Jane Terry said: "We were asked for additional architectural drawings from the council and decided to defer our application while we work on those."

The council rejected that deferral plea and Network Rail now face producing a brand new application.

Cllr Bracey said he anticipated that the ongoing fight to save the trees would be long and hard, but said the latest decision meant residents and councillors could tackle it with "renewed vigour."