A furious resident living near a railway line says it feels as though a train is in her garden every time one goes past after trees were removed from behind her house.

Julie Horton, from Westgate, says she hasn’t opened her upstairs curtains for more than six weeks and her downstairs ones are shut from about 3.30pm every day.

Julie Horton has been left angered at 'lack of privacy' after the trees were felled

The 59-year-old says it is the only way she can get any privacy, after trees which blocked the view from the tracks were removed by Network Rail.

Now, she says, train passengers can peer directly into her home in Victoria Mews as they travel past, just metres from the back of her house.

When they do pass - some at high-speed - the charity shop supervisor admits it feels as though she has a train in her garden.

In emails to Mrs Horton, Network Rail says the trees “posed a potential risk to the operational railway” and apologised if it came as a “bit of a shock”.

But she is now urging them to replant with trees or bamboo.

“We’ve lived here for five years and if I’d viewed the house now, there’s no way we would have bought it,” she said.

“When the trains come from Westgate they are very slow, we’re only two minutes from the station you see, so as they pass I can actually see the people sat in the carriages.

“I could wave at them and they’d see me - I’ve lost all my privacy.”

Mrs Horton says she and her husband never used to shut their curtains, but now feel they have no other choice.

“The noise is also ridiculous,” she added.

“We’d just had high quality double-glazing put in, but I can hear the fast trains easily - these are the ones that don’t stop at Westgate and come straight past.

“We’ve always had a bit of noise, but it was blocked by the trees.

“Now it’s horrendous; no one would consider buying this house.”

Mrs Horton says her once-wildlife-filled garden is empty.

“We used to have lots of bird but they’ve all gone now,” she said.

“We’ve also lost all our shade so come summer I won’t want to sit in the garden. I wouldn’t want to anyway with people just being able to look in.

“My mental health is suffering, I have no privacy, I can hear the trains - they’re virtually in my garden - and it looks ugly and exposed.”

Mrs Horton says trees were removed from the back of four of her neighbour’s houses at the beginning of the year, but says she told the workers she did not want hers felled.

“I was told ‘that’s fine, we wouldn’t do that’, but then in mid-October, after being out all day, I got home and my husband told me to go into the garden,” she recalled.

“I walked out and just went ‘where have they gone’ and started crying.”

A spokesman for Network Rail says they were taking down dying and diseased trees in the area and the one directly behind Mrs Horton's house was removed at the same time in response to requests from several lineside neighbours.

"In particular a neighbour who produced evidence that the type of pollen it produces was aggravating a health condition," he said.

"We were working in the area removing diseased and dying trees at the same time so we were able to help these neighbours with their request.

"We do notify our neighbours when we are working in their areas, particularly if we’re doing noisy work, however we are unable to alert them as to which trees we are likely to remove.

"We also are unable to put screens up along the line as they would be a further maintenance burden and a risk to the reliability of the railway."

He added that the firm takes its sustainability responsibilities seriously and is spending £1m to plant more than 80,000 trees and hedgerows across the country this winter.

"In addition we are running 70 trial sites in Kent to find new ways of managing vegetation along the railway to best preserve biodiversity," he said.

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