A report to councillors by environmental planning and building services director David Shaw detailed the allegation of illegal land clearing along a 1.2km long stretch of woodland at Mount Rankin.

The report said between 100 and 200 trees – some believed to be 200 years old –  were damaged or removed from a council road reserve.

Mr Shaw sought councillors’ support to further investigate the matter and start appropriate legal action.

But councillors, apparently rattled by a number of recent costly legal battles, instead voted to allow Mr Shaw’s department to continue investigating the matter but report back to council before going any further.

Deputy mayor Ian North said the report to councillors did not contain enough information for him to vote at this stage to support the start of legal action against anyone responsible for the land clearing.

“I want more information about how this could have happened when there’s a lot of information out there about illegal land clearing,” he said.

Cr Monica Morse asked how it was possible up to 200 trees could be damaged or removed from council land without council’s knowledge.

“This would have taken a long time – did we not know it was happening?” she asked.

Mr Shaw replied that council only became aware of the land clearing following a tip-off from a concerned member of the community.

“It only came to council’s attention from a complaint – without that complaint we probably still wouldn’t be aware of it,” he said.

Earlier at Wednesday night’s council meeting, both Greening Bathurst secretary Hugh Gould and Bathurst Community Climate Action Network president Tracey Carpenter used public question time to urge council to treat the matter seriously.

Mr Gould said few people present at the meeting would still be alive when replacement trees reached maturity, while Ms Carpenter called illegal land clearing “vandalism of the worst kind”.

“It’s not as easy as painting over some graffiti on a wall,” she said. “Council must make people who damage our environment know that there will be consequences.”

Mr Shaw’s department will now continue its investigations into the land clearing.