Letter: Outdated view of trees

Once destroyed, large trees and the ecosystems they support cannot be easily replaced

I’m sure we’re all grateful to Thomas Marshall for his advice (Letters, April 20) regarding street trees. His views, however, are outdated.

Since 2018 the council has acknowledged that its policy of felling trees for spurious reasons (such as uneven pavements – which have now been fixed without felling) was wrongheaded and have now started applying proper objective arboricultural criteria when deciding whether to fell or to retain a tree.

We are looking at an uncertain future in which it is likely that mature trees will play an important role in mitigating some of the problems we face. For that reason alone (and there are many others) we must learn to live alongside, and be thankful for, large trees.

Once destroyed, large trees and the ecosystems they support cannot be easily replaced, so we must err on the side of caution before destroying a valuable asset.

If a specific tree is causing a problem he can apply to the council to do something about it, but a blanket approach to felling trees just because they are large is, hopefully, a policy now firmly in the past.

Helen McIlroy

Norfolk Park, Independent Candidate, Manor Castle