The fate of trees scheduled for the chop in Sheffield will go before councillors next week, after a petition reached more than 8,000 signatures.
Yesterday, residents on Wayland Road near Sharrow stopped contractors removing eight trees.
The felling is part of the council’s £2bn road improvement works, Streets Ahead, a five-year project carried out by Amey.
A spokesman said the trees would be replaced over the next few months.
The petition started in May when 12 trees on Rustlings Road in the south west of the city were scheduled for the chop.
Council policy is to debate petitions with more than 5,000 names, so the case for keeping the trees will be put to councillors on Wednesday, 1 July.
A spokesman said: “We understand concerns that removing the trees will change the look of the road, but we are future-proofing our city for generations to come so they do not have to face the same issues with trees that we face.”
“We have already replaced over 2,000 trees and Sheffield City Council has planted an additional 50,000 new trees, helping to create 17 new woodlands.
“Sheffield is Europe’s greenest city and once all the tree works have taken place will remain Europe’s greenest city.”
Protestors said an independent expert should be called in to assess whether removal is the only option.
One protestor Calvin Payne said Wayland Road residents were on shift in case contractors came to chop the trees.
The council said it had a “legal duty” to keep pavements safe and urged residents not to block replacement works.
“One tree is diseased, another is structurally unstable and could fall into the road, and the other six are damaging the pavement,” the council said of Wayland Road.
