MOTORWAY traffic is blighting the view from a village, according to residents, after contractors tore down the trees that screened it.

The M25 at Theydon Mount was widened from three lanes to four last year, partly to help the road cope with extra traffic during next year’s Olympics.

But people living in nearby Epping Lane are demanding that workers return and restore the motorway embankment which has been left littered with the dead trees.

John Fradd, 43, who can now see the motorway from his garden, said: “There used to be a nice coppice along the side of the road.

“They’ve rebuilt the embankment too steeply and all the soil has slipped off. It’s a real eyesore.

“When they built the M25 originally, they planted trees in the wasteland in between and you couldn’t see the motorway.

“I think there’s an environmental obligation to put it right.”

Mr Fradd, who runs his own gardening and landscaping business, said the new trees planted since the road-widening had died off because they had not been watered properly or had enough topsoil.

His neighbour in Epping Lane, Robert Holloway, said the parish council had organised several meetings with the contractor, Balfour Beatty, asking them to tidy up the embankment, but had got nowhere.

“They’re not bothered about reinstatement,” he said.

“Fair enough, the motorway had to be widened, but they’ve done nothing about re-planting the dead trees.

“People walk around the area and it’s a beautiful place, but they’ve made no effort.

“We just want it tidied up.”

Balfour Beatty referred inquiries to the Highways Agency, which is in charge of the M25 expansion project.

But a spokesman for the Highways Agency said that trees were unlikely to return.

He added: “We are aware that some of the vegetation planted has not become established, most likely due to particularly dry weather conditions this year.

“We have already started work to replant 300 ivy plants, but we can’t plant any extra trees, because underneath the verge are some utilities pipes and the trees would interfere with them.”