Rockfield Park and sports field has a number of Pine trees growing there and it has been spotted that the bark had been stripped off the trunk of a number of them.

Lee Richards, who looks after the Rockfield Rovers’ pitch and a founder member of ‘Drop it, Bag it, Bin it’ checks the football pitch before every match for dog waste.

“I walked past the trees and something didn’t look right with them,” he told the Beacon. He was talking to Sue Parkinson, (Monmouthshire County Council’s Waste and Recycling Education and Awareness Officer) and they both looked at them and saw that six or seven trees had their bark stripped off “and we couldn’t understand what was going on”, he added.

He was told by one of his neighbours that she had seen what looked like a Staffordshire Bull terrier “ripping the bark off”.

He was told the person with the dog, a middle-aged lady “just stood there watching, and then walked off and left the dog to rip the bark.

“My neighbour spoke to the woman and was given a load of verbal abuse” he claimed.

“The trees are now really weeping and the branches are going brown and according to Sue, there is not much part of the tree going to survive” he said.

“It’s horrendous, there are loads of other trees, it’s got to be stopped or we’re going to lose more.

“There’s one outside the children’s play area and that’s the one that’s dying. That makes it more poignant for me, obviously children love trees and to see these trees die, it’s heartbreaking”.

“It won’t be cheap to replace the trees if they die, they are about £500 a piece.

“I hope the individuals show some form of guilt and apologise. They know they’re being watched as the day I was rolling the football field, the woman came past me with her dog and the dog went towards the tree, so I shouted and she picked the dog up and walked off.”

Mayor of Monmouth, Councillor Terry Christopher was made aware of the problem at a litter meeting and said he was very disappointed that this had happened.

“I believe it is an irresponsible dog owner who is allowing her animal to attack the trees. We shouldn't be destroying trees, we should be planting them,” he added.