A NATURE lover claims a parish council has used foot and mouth cordons as a cover for tree management work which, she says, has devastated the land.

Silla Maizey, of St John's Road, Hazlemere, was looking forward to walking in Kingswood again over the Easter weekend after Buckinghamshire County Council lifted a ban on walking in the area.

But when she entered the woodland, which is under a five-year management plan approved by the Forestry Commission, she said she was greeted by "devastation".

Miss Maizey said: "It is small wonder that this woodland has remained closed to the public. It appears that the foot and mouth crisis has afforded a convenient veil for the council to perform these negligent activities undisturbed."

Miss Maizey said entire tracks had been bulldozed, destroying young trees and undergrowth, and that deep channels had been gouged by equipment.

In a letter to Chepping Wycombe Parish Council Miss Maizey said: "You have engaged the company to perform this woodland management. It is obvious that this supplier has not delivered as contracted as surely the terms of the contract could not afford for such poor quality.

"I have been a user of Kingswood for over ten years and you have performed necessary woodland management during this period but never with intrusive scarring of the area as now."

Cllr Maurice Smith, of Chepping Wycombe Parish Council, said: "It is absolute rubbish. She may have a strong feeling about what is being done but I can assure you that is not the case at all.

"Anything that has been done will have been done to plan. If there was a major problem there would have been talk of it before.

"Kingswood we value greatly as an asset. It is a maintained environment. Various trees are felled, various trees are planted. We don't employ people that don't manage the area well."

Stuart Wilson, spokesman for English Woodlands, which undertook the work, said: "Our company has been going for 80-something years. We haven't been going that long by destroying woodland."