An ancient Somerset oak tree has been felled to make way for a new slip road despite the best efforts of protesters over the past two weeks.

Protesters occupied what has become known as the Queen Camel oak on July 21, objecting to National Highways’ plans to cut the tree down as part of a £140M scheme to dual the A303 between the Podimore and Sparkford roundabouts.

The scheme, which will be finished by early 2024, includes the creation of a new slip road connecting the dual carriageway to Hazelgrove Prep School near Sparkford – which, National Highways claimed, could not be done without removing the tree.

Despite the protestors’ best efforts, along with thousands signing a petition and lobbying from local parliamentary candidates, the tree was cut down on Saturday (July 30) – an act described by the protesters as “needless construction ploughing indiscriminately through precious nature.”

Protesters were evicted from the tree and the surrounding land on Friday morning (July 29), with people claiming that they were evicted by the same people who removed people from the protests against the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line currently being constructed.

Indra Donfresco, who filmed the felling after the eviction, said: “This government is out of control. This is profits over nature.

“This tree would have gone down two-and-a-half weeks ago if we hadn’t have spotted it. We’ve lived, we’ve played, we’ve had community around this beautiful queen oak – it’s been our home, and she has been loud.

“When you see a perfectly healthy oak – a beautiful, oak, ancient oak that holds so much life, you know what to do and you put your back to it.”

A petition to save the tree on the campaigning site Change.org attracted more than 37,000 signatures.

Despite the tree being felled, Ms Donfresco that the experience had given her hope for similar campaigns in the future.

She said: “I have real hope – this campaign’s given me real hope. People scrambled so quickly – there was so much conviction. People just know what to do now.”

Following their eviction from the site by bailiffs, the protesters gathered near the site again on Sunday (July 31) to “mourn” the loss of the tree.

Those in attendance were treated to a performance by Seize the Day, featuring Theo Simon, who stood for the Green Party in the Somerton and Frome constituency in 2015 and again in 2017.

The stump of the oak will be transported to an unspecified “ancient woodland”, where it will serve as a home for local insects and other wildlife.

Ms Donfresco said: “She [the tree] is still inspiring people to truth about ecological destruction as our planet burns.

“We will continue to fight against needless construction ploughing indiscriminately through precious nature.

“This is a war on nature. We’re fighting to stop the war. We are not soldiers, we are people – and we’re trying to be the best humans that we can be.”

National Highways – formerly known as Highways England – said in late July that it was committed to planting new trees to prevent biodiversity from being lost from the A303 scheme, and that removing the tree was always “the last resort”.

A spokesman said: “Where we plan to remove old trees on the A303 Sparkford scheme, we have made sure to investigate other possibilities to see if we can avoid removal. Sadly, that was not possible on this occasion.

“We continue to work with ecologists and other specialists to make sure our environmental mitigations are as thorough and beneficial as possible.”