ECO campaigners in the Borders are providing a roadside reminder of their anger over the loss of trees in Tweedbank.

Extinction Rebellion replanted saplings around the edges of the development site towards the end of last year.

And last week they returned to the area next to the Melrose roundabout to erect signs highlighting the free-felling.

As part of the the Borders Gateway development planning approval, permission was granted for the removal of the trees to make way for a hotel, petrol station and drive-thru coffee shop.

But the felling has angered many.

A spokesman Extinction Rebellion told us: “The mature trees did not need to be felled in such great numbers for this development.

"It is shocking that at a time of climate emergency, the council gave in to pressure from the developer to enable their commercial outlets to be more clearly visible from the bypass, by removing all the mature trees, which provided pleasing screening around the edge of the site as well as absorbing and reducing CO2 from the air.

“Developers too have a duty to count the carbon cost of their projects, and take the trouble to work with the environment, not destroy it.

"Every application for planning approval must now be scrutinised through the lens of climate change, to measure the impact it has on reducing, not adding to, the effects of carbon emissions.

“We ignore the loss of mature trees in the name of ‘development’ at our peril and must stop seeing woodlands and forests merely as disposable commodities.

"They have such a crucial part to play in the restoration of our eco systems, which in turn mitigate the effects of climate change which is affecting us all.”