Ex-Premier League manager wins bitter battle with neighbours over 7 ‘nuisance' trees full of squawking magpies

Scottish Sun

5 hours ago

Newcastle are called the Magpies because of their black and white striped kit
LEAF IT OUT Ex-Premier League manager wins bitter battle with neighbours over 7 'nuisance' trees full of squawking magpies
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FORMER Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan has won his battle with neighbours to axe seven "nuisance" trees at his Cheshire mansion - despite fears for magpies.
The Liverpool legend, 74, and his next door neighbours were left stumped after half a dozen locals living opposite objected to the "wholesale" cull.
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Retired football player Kevin Keegan
Credit: Getty
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The sycamore trees near his home (not pictured) are all in poor condition. Similar trees are pictured on a public road
Credit: Matthew Pover
One protestor even sent a sound recording to the local council of birds in the trees including blackbirds, blue tits, parakeets, robins and Magpies, in a desperate bid to save the 60ft-high sycamores.
Newcastle are called the Magpies because of their black and white striped kit, like the bird's plumage, and Keegan bossed them back in the 1990s.
The 50-year-old trees were slapped with a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) before the row of four houses, including Keegan's, were built.
But Keegan and his neighbours have now successfully applied to the local council to have the "dead and decaying" trees completely felled to the ground.
In a letter, one objector wrote: "The protected trees have always provided a welcome and quite natural habitat for the wide diversity of animals, especially birds.
"For many years, our property and those of our neighbours have overlooked an empty field. Now our view, especially during the winter months, is of four detached houses.
"During the summer months, a time when most people enjoy being out in their gardens, the protected trees have provided a level of privacy, shade from the sun and good noise reduction (for all parties).
"Over the last 40 years I can honestly say the protected trees have caused no real problems at all. To destroy live trees would be a tragedy."
Another objector, whose house backs on to Keegan's, paid towards the cost of previous tree works in a gesture of good will.
They said: "I am in total agreement that tree maintenance and action is required to the trees. My objection is with some of the proposed action."
A third objector said: "The face the trees are now considered a nuisance shouldn't necessitate their wanton removal, after all the trees were there long before the houses were built."
Keegan won three Division One Championships, two UEFA Cups, one FA Cup and a European Cup in his playing career at Liverpool, and also won the Ballon d'Or twice.
As a manager, he is famous for his "I would love it if we beat them" rant at Sir Alex Ferguson as his Newcastle side threw away a 13-point lead and lost the Premier League title to Man Utd in 1996.
The former England boss moved to his five-bedroom Cheshire pad in 2002 and has since added a loft conversion, two dormer windows and a rear conservatory.
Officials at Trafford Council gave the go-ahead for the tree felling by April 2027, but ordered that new trees should be planted.
They said: "The sycamore trees proposed for removal are all in poor condition, most have areas of dead bark on the lower stem, structural weaknesses in the crown and poor leaf budding rates.
"Decay is evident in several previous pruning points and these trees are likely to become hazardous in the near future if they remain."