There are fears the Memorial Park’s historic Avenue of Remembrance will “never” return after new trees planted to replace those cut down failed to grow.

Council workers were forced to fell half of the magnificent horse chestnuts in December when officials discovered the trees were suffering with bleeding canker bacteria.

A number of hornbeams intended to maintain the look of the park were planted in their place, but many have now snapped and residents fear they will never grow.

At a meeting of Herne Bay councillors on Tuesday, councillor Andrew Cook (Con) said: “If we could attempt to have larger trees put in that would be good.

“At this rate, we would never have an avenue of trees because they are getting broken off faster than they can grow. I think half of the new trees have broken.”

Half of the diseased horse chestnuts were removed in December, with the remaining trees towards the entrance gates set to be cut down this winter.

They were originally planted in 1932, but the Forestry Commission said there was no treatment for their bleeding canker bacteria and it would cause them to die.

It was hoped the hornbeams would start to become established for the commemorations of the centenary of the end of the First World War in November 2018.

City council environment officer Rosemary Selling told the meeting: “There is a new avenue of trees establishing and we appreciate that they need looking at.

“What we wanted to avoid was cutting all of the trees down at once as that would have a big visual impact.

“It is unfortunate that they have this bacteria, but it was recommended by leading consultants that they had to come down.

“We do have to do these things, but we want to reduce the visual impact, and that is why we have done it in two phases.”