Residents are mourning the loss of trees alongside a key road after construction began on a new housing estate.

Housing developer Vistry has felled trees alongside the A20 London Road in East Mailing as it continues with work to build 250 homes on former farmland known as Forty Acres.

The company won planning permission for the development on appeal to the government after Tonbridge and Malling council had twice refused to give its consent.

There had been 621 letters of objection.

Phillip Roles, 79, who lives nearby said: “It’s a great shame. It’s wanton destruction. I loved those trees. Then one day I came along and they had gone.”

Cllr Roger Roud (Lib Dem) had warned that the development would close the gap between East and West Malling.

He said: “It is really disappointing.”