CAMPAIGNERS are on the verge of winning a seven year reprieve for a row of 100-year-old horse chestnut trees in a North Yorkshire village.

North Yorkshire County Council had intended to chop down the seven horse chestnuts at Bishop Monkton, near Ripon, last year.

But the move brought such an outcry from villagers that work has twice been postponed.

A petition headed Save our Beckside Trees! was signed by 138 people, pleading for the horse chestnuts to be spared.

And now officials at North Yorkshire County Council are recommending that councillors, who meet on Thursday, opt to keep the horse chestnuts for seven years, allowing inter-planted sweet chestnuts to flourish.

Villager Val Ellis-Beech, who signed the petition, welcomed the idea of reprieving the trees and said it would give time for "everyone to draw breath."

She added: "The majority of people in the village want them to stay."

The trees at the centre of controversy are on Main Street alongside Bishop Monkton Beck.

Fifteen years ago, ten sweet chestnut trees were planted between each horse chestnut amid fears that the old trees were reaching the end of their life.

One of the campaigners commissioned an expert report on the trees which said all but one should be kept for seven to ten years.

Mike Moore, the county's environmental chief, said it was now accepted by all parties that the horse chestnuts should be felled in favour of the sweet chestnuts.

In a bid to ensure public safety the horse chestnuts need maintaining and inspecting annually, costing £5,000 over the next seven to ten years.