A Monmouthshire farmer has been ordered to pay over £2,000 in fines and costs for felling trees in ancient woodland protected by a tree preservation order.

David Willis, of Cefn Mawr Farm, Monkswood, Usk, admitted offences under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 after cutting down, uprooting and destroying a large number of protected trees on land that he farms at Goytre, near the Chain Bridge.

Monmouthshire County Council's tree officer, George Weston, went to the site after being alerted by a local resident and found that nearly two acres of woodland on the north-western edge of Graig yr Harris wood were being cleared of trees. 

Some trees had been cut down and others uprooted with a bulldozer.