A Fair Oak vicar who stirred up a storm in his village after he chopped down a 142-year-old yew tree without permission has received a slap on the wrist from his bosses.

The Rev David Snuggs angered Fair Oak villagers when he felled the much-loved tree in St Thomas's Church grounds in January without checking with the Diocese of Winchester.

Outraged residents, many of whom had played around the tree as children, claimed the yew had been axed without proper consultation.

Now Mr Snuggs has been ordered by the diocese to make amends and replace the old yew by planting some new saplings in the churchyard.

Diocese Chancellor The Worshipful Christopher Clarke QC said church bosses would never have agreed to let the yew - planted as a sapling when the church was built in 1864 - be chopped down if permission had been sought.

Mr Snuggs and his Parochial Church Council claimed they had felled the tree - which was not protected - for health and safety reasons, and because they feared that paedophiles could hide behind it.

Reports by inspectors from Ofsted on the two playschools that use the church grounds have also warned that children could be poisoned by the yew's berries.

Mr Clarke said that he felt other, less drastic solutions could have been found.

But he added that the decision did not reflect on the work of Mr Snuggs as an "excellent parish priest".

Now Mr Snuggs, who received poison pen letters after the tree was axed, will be scouting garden centres and nurseries for suitable replacement saplings.

Mr Snuggs, who has been vicar at St Thomas's since 1996, refused to comment.

The Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, said: "I hope that the Chancellor's judgement will be accepted as closing this regrettable chapter."

Fair Oak resident and former councillor Geoffrey Owen thought the decision was fair.

He said: "I think it is just, but I don't think to plant a new sapling tree is an effective replacement and will take hundreds of years to grow."