A battle over whether a woodman should spare two 30ft willow trees has been settled by a compromise.

A rumpus erupted over the two trees which are 70ft apart on Masham Recreation Ground, when Harrogate Borough Council slapped a provisional tree preservation order on them.

But this brought protests from Masham Parish Council, which had wanted to fell both trees amid fears that they were damaging drains and causing flooding on the playing fields.

Masham's borough councillor Nigel Simms backed the parish council plea.

Following a site visit ahead of the area borough planning committee meeting the council amended its original recommendation following advice from their tree expert.

On revisiting the site he felt one of the trees was not worth protecting because it had only five to ten years' life left.

Later, seven councillors voted to protect the single tree, one voted against and three abstained.

Councillor Simms, who backed the parish council and voted against the single tree's preservation, said the matter had become ridiculous. "Money and effort has been wasted in trying to put the preservation order on when they were not worth keeping anyway," said Coun Simms.

Parish councillors did not want the woodman to spare either tree.

Coun Simms said he normally fought to protect trees, but when they were causing problems he could not support the preservation order.

One of the trees is now covered by a permanent tree preservation order while the other is not, paving the way for it to be felled