People say they are shocked and saddened after dozens of trees were felled as part of a multi-million pound road project.

One person said she could hear the chainsaws and “cried” as she drove past the A20 Coldharbour Roundabout in Maidstone.

The £5m revamp on the area started on Monday, February 12.

Kent County Council (KCC) says the project will see the junction enlarged from two lanes to three around the roundabout, with additional lanes provided on the approaches.

Traffic lights will be removed and replaced by Give Way lines.

As a result of the roundabout being expanded, 40 trees have been cut down. This includes all plants on the roundabout itself and those growing on the patch of land next to the junction.

Plans to install an attenuation tank, which will reduce the threat of flooding, also meant the existing trees couldn't be retained.

KCC states: “To mitigate this loss, approximately 70 trees are being replanted as part of the landscaping works that will be carried out at the end of the project.”

Rachel Rodwell says she could hear the chainsaws from her boat at the bottom of Castle Road in the early hours of Tuesday, February 20.

“Well, I knew it was coming,” she explained. “I didn't want to drive to work that way because I knew it was going to feel awful.

“I cried when I saw it. People locally have watched them grow over the decades and I think for me it just felt like a loss.

“It wasn't just a sadness, it was a feeling of helplessness – whatever anyone says or does, including petitions or protests, things just go ahead anyway.

“We are seeing the landscape literally change before our eyes.”

Joan Clews, who lives in Tonbridge Road, moved to Maidstone in 1969 from Liverpool.

“When I first came down it looked like the Garden of Eden,” she said. “In the last five years, there has been a big increase in development – especially housing.

“It took a minute for it to register that the trees had gone and the roundabout was empty. It was a real shock.”

She added: “One thing to take from this is that it’s so good that a lot of people are upset.

“It just shows residents do care about the environment.”

Unable to sleep during the felling, Rachel wrote a melody called The Sycamore Song.

After posting it on Facebook, Rachel was inundated with likes and messages of support. Many people expressed their own sadness in the comments.

One person said: “Encapsulates the shock and sorrow I felt when I saw the bare space and the sorry stumps of what was, only days ago, a treasured green sanctuary on an otherwise soulless, polluting road artery.”

Another added: “It's heartbreaking. I haven't been able to drive past it yet because it's too sad to see the trees gone.”

Rachel has performed with the folk band Larkspur for many years, even touring Finland and Lapland.

The Green Party campaigner previously released a song in protest over the proposed expansion of Hermitage Quarry at Aylesford and the damage it could cause to Oaken Wood.

“It really did make a lot of people feel shocked,” she explained.

“With trees there’s a sense of permanence; when you go past something it's always there and it's comforting.

“When it's suddenly gone, it really brings home the scale of what is happening – all in the name of progress.”

Despite KCC confirming it would be adding new trees to the site, Rachel has some concerns about whether they will survive.

She said: “Those saplings that they're going to be planting will take decades upon decades to get to the same level that the sycamores were.

“If you think about it in terms of biodiversity loss, those trees are not going to be sustaining anything for decades.”

The project is due to be completed by mid-December.