CHOPPING down Sid the Sycamore cost the taxpayer around £3,000, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The 72-year-old tree in Eastleigh was at the centre of a year long "save it" campaign, before it fell victim to the chainsaw on Easter Monday.

Council have felled the tree on the edge of the Leigh Road Recreation Ground, to make way for a new dance studio complex at The Point.

Protesters who launched a campaign to save the tree were left helpless as branch by branch the sycamore - planted to celebrate Eastleigh becoming a borough - was destroyed.

Police and security guards stood by as a team of tree surgeons moved in to chop down the tree, costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds in bank holiday work payments.

Now after being approached by the Daily Echo the council has revealed that the cost of removing the tree, which took about five hours, was around £2,000.

Bringing in security guards added about £1,000 to the bill.

Since Sid was given the chop the Daily Echo website has been bombarded by more than 50 messages, including protests over the cost of carrying out the work on a bank holiday.

One reader wrote: "I watched the cutting down this morning. It cost us a fortune. Eight tree surgeons, four security guards and two police officers and all on a double time bank holiday."

When asked why the tree was felled on a bank holiday, a council spokesman said: "Part of Romsey Road needed to be closed in order to remove the tree.

"Instructions from Hampshire Highways were that the tree could not be removed during the working week. Therefore it had to be removed at the weekend.

"As Saturday is the town's busy market day and Sunday was Palm Sunday it was decided to remove the tree on Bank Holiday Monday."

The spokesman said that following trespass onto The Point and the sycamore tree the council were advised on security and health and safety grounds to fence off the area and employ security staff.