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Quinton resident: 'It's as if I've got the motorway in my house'

BBC Garden compositeBBC
These before and after photos show how much the huge trees were screening off Melanie Davies' garden from the M5, which is just the other side of the fence

Residents in part of Birmingham say their lives are being plagued by noise following the sudden removal of trees along a stretch of the M5.

National Grid said they had been removed in Quinton due to the risk to traffic and nearby power lines.

However, people living in the area say the move has increased noise, light and pollution coming from the motorway.

"It's as if I've got the motorway in my house," resident Melanie Davies, who recently bought her home, told the BBC.

Quinton residents plagued by noise after M5 tree removal

Work to fell the trees - more than 50 of which have already been removed - began about two weeks ago and Ms Davies said her new view was "horrendous".

"First day I walked in after they started the work, I dropped to the floor in tears," she said. "I just collapsed."

She has had to move bedrooms due to the noise from the road and said she was no longer able to relax in her own home.

The land where the trees were planted belongs to National Highways, which said it had agreed to replant with fast-growing species.

A few doors from Ms Davies, Alan Whitehouse, who bought his house more than 50 years ago, before the M5 was finished, said he was worried about pollution.

"At least the trees cushioned the noise," he said. "And now they've took the trees away, we're going to get fumes and that coming across."

Local councillors have joined residents' calls for the trees to be replanted and a "proper protective barrier" put up as soon as possible.

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