TREE felling will take place at St Catherine’s Hill in Christchurch as part of a 10-year management plan for the popular site.

The work will start on November 10 and follows a public consultation on the matter.

Licences for the tree felling were granted in 2013 and works for last winter were agreed, but due to the bad weather had to be postponed.

The work will now take place between November 10 and March 31.

Priority for the felling has been given to areas where early recovery is required to allow further work to take place, where trees are in poor condition or to enable later access to adjacent areas.

Individual trees that the Steering Group feel should be retained at the moment have been marked with blue paint.

A hydrologist has been fully consulted to advise the site managers to minimise potential impacts.

Drainage monitoring is also in place.

Selected trees will be felled and then taken to a nearby location for chipping.

To minimise vehicle size, vehicle movements and burning on site, all parts of the trees will be chipped using a large mobile chipping unit.

Robin Harley, countryside officer at Christchurch council, said: “The chipping operation will generate some noise which is likely to be the main impact on local residents and we apologise in advance for any disturbance caused. To reduce its effects, chipping will not take place every day but only once sufficient material has been generated.

“Whilst we aim to minimise disturbance to site users and local residents, it will be necessary to close off individual blocks during the operations to ensure public safety.”

Costs will be largely met through grant funding agreements with Natural England.