"THEY have an honours degree in arrogance," was one Fylde councillor's opinion of Royal Lytham St Annes Golf Club after it cut down hundreds of trees.

Coun Peter Davies was speaking yesterday (June 15) at a meeting of the Fylde Planning Committee in Wesham about the way he felt the club had treated Ansdell residents.

He said they had "skirted the line between right and wrong" over planning permission for a new access road.

The club says, however, that the trees cut down were felled in line with a court order issued by local residents to protect their back gardens from seeding from poplar trees.

But the resident protest groups, some of which are pictured inspecting the area, say that the club has used the order to cut down a swathe of trees to make way for an extension to an access road.

The issue of the access road at the club has been dogged with controversy as angry residents feel the removal of the trees has created an eyesore and is endangering the environment.

But the committee heard yesterday that because the trees were not covered by a protection order it was not a planning matter and therefore planning permission was not required. Coun Davies said the golf club had angered the residents by not involving them in the decision to cut down the trees.

The road will run adjacent to the public footpath at the back of the Lytham St Annes High School playing fields.

"The club has shown a complete lack of PR skills and a high level of arrogance," he said during a ten-minute address to the committee.

"It should have been speaking to the neighbours of the site, consulting them, asking them about their opinion and taking them into its confidence.

"The club must have taken expert advice and skirted the line between right and wrong to get this access road built."

Chairman of the committee, Coun Trevor Fiddler, said that although there was a great deal of public opinion against the plans, it was only within the committee's remit to discuss the plans for the access road and not the club's actions in cutting down the trees.

"This is an example of where common sense and planning policy do not appear to go together," he said.

The council voted to defer the granting of planning permission for the road until further consultations have taken place about the future impact on the environment of types of road surface.

It also agreed to stipulate in the plans that there should be more consultation over what plants or trees should be used to re-develop the area after the road has been completed.

Brenda Wildish, one of the organisers of the local protest, said: "This is a moral victory for common sense."

Royal Lytham and St Annes golf club declined to comment.