MORE than 200 people attended a public meeting last night to show their anger over a replanting scheme to replace hundreds of metres of trees stripped from a railway station in January.

The meeting at Grange Park Methodist Church, in Old Park Ridings, was called after Network Rail planted nearly 400 tree saplings in a straight line on the railway embankment in Green Dragon Lane next to Grange Park station.

Mature oak and sycamore trees were stripped from the leafy embankment by Network Rail in January, with the rail operator saying the old trees were unstable and potentially dangerous – prompting outrage from homeowners, Enfield Council and Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes.

At last night's meeting, Helen Osman, of Old Park Ridings, gave a presentation to senior officials from Network Rail, asking them to plant more trees instead of waiting 12 months to see how the site matured.

She told the Enfield Independent: “We felt that we had been totally ignored in the previous consultations.

“For people living next door to this embankment it's awful and I've been around to their homes and looked at it – they're devastated.”

Other speakers at the meeting said that they were “totally appalled” by the scheme, while another said it was a “feeble attempt” to restore the environment.

Network Rail said it would plant more trees before March and would hold a review within the next year to see if more were needed.