FED-UP residents in a Johnstone street are seeing red after being told they must pay to have “dangerous” shrubs maintained.

For years, Renfrewshire Council has met the costs involved in keeping dogwood shrubs at a strip of land in Elm Lea under control.

However, those living in the street have now been told they will have to pick up the tab.

Councillor John Hood, who represents the area and is backing the residents, claims the greenery was planted by the council when the estate was first built and has been maintained by the local authority ever since.

The Johnstone South and Elderslie representative told The Gazette: “Residents have been told that, if they don’t get the shrubs cut back, they are going to be charged £86 per household to pay for the council to cut them back.

“I understand the council are saying the developers originally planted them but I know for a fact they were planted before the developers started working on this site.

“The council have also been maintaining this strip of land for the past 19 years that I have been a councillor. If it wasn’t their land, they wouldn’t have been cutting back the shrubs in the first place.

“I’ve been getting this more and more now, where there is land that the council have previously been cutting back but they’re now saying ‘Oh, it doesn’t belong to us’.”

Councillor Hood believes the council’s refusal to cut back the overhanging vegetation, which needs to be maintained for health and safety reasons, is a bid to save cash.

He said: “Obviously money is tight within the council and local authorities are having to look for ways to get by but I don’t think this is the right way to save money.

“They have done this in Spateston Road as well, where every year they maintained the dogwood they planted but now they’ve turned around and said ‘It doesn’t belong to us.’

“In that case, why have they been cutting it back for the past 50 years?”

However, council chiefs have defended their position.

A spokesperson said: “The land is privately owned by the residents of Elm Lea and therefore they are responsible for its maintenance.

“Overhanging vegetation requires to be cut back to clear the footway to make it safe for pedestrians and, as this has not been completed by residents, we will carry it out and recover the costs.”