Plymouth City Council spokesperson said: “As part of our regular programme of maintenance, and following feedback from the community, including local groups, we have been keen to clean-up this space on the Hoe and make it more welcoming and safe for both residents and visitors.
“The area around the Belvedere shelter has suffered from growing anti-social behaviour, with council officers regularly having to clean up sex and drug paraphernalia.
“Over the past few years we have already carried out improvement works on two other shelters, which has received positive feedback. In the latest works, carried out on the final shelter on 23 April, we removed large shrubs, including cabbage palms.
“We will be replacing them with planting that has improved bio-diversity benefits and provide a better home to bees and bugs. Works were carried out in consultation with an ecologist, who confirmed that there were no birds nesting.
“We apologise to the Hoe Neighbourhood Forum that we did not keep them up-to-date with the detail of these works. Community engagement will be a priority moving forward.”