A massive tree in a Croxley Green estate will have to be chopped down due to disease, and the £3,000 bill will be left with the residents.

The tree, in Chalmers Court, will cost thousands of pounds to remove due to its size and awkward location in the middle of the estate.

The bill for its removal will be picked up by the residents of the estate - something that they say is unfair.

Michael Gosling, who has privately rented his home in the Scots Hill estate for five years, said: "They've already chopped one down and we didn't get charged for that.

"We found out about a month ago, there was a meeting when they told us the tree needed to be chopped down.

"The £3,000 needed to remove the tree will be added to our service charge. We had a vote but not everyone voting pays the service charge."

The weekly service charge is about £20 but Mr Gosling said he was worried this would increase to cover the cost of the tree removal.

Karen Lewis, regional operations director for Housing 21 said: "Regrettably it has become necessary to fell a tree at Chalmers Court which is infected by fungus.

"There is a danger that branches could fall causing injury or damage and that the disease could spread to other trees nearby.

"The cost of this work is added to the service charge, in line with Housing 21 policy.

"However, we do recognise that these costs can be quite significant and in order to lessen the impact on residents we would look to spread this out over more than one service charge year."

The housing authority has plans to move to an annual tree management contract to make sure that large, one-off payments were avoided.

Ms Lewis added: "This would involve an annual inspection of scheme trees and maintenance work where required.

"Such a move would help smooth the payment of maintenance costs also enabling the organisation to keep a closer eye on issues such as diseased trees."