You got what you voted for

The 5am knock at the door by the police is very reminiscent of the Gestapo or Stasi and quite a worrying precedent to be set.

Those of us with long memories will remember the days when our socialist republic declared itself a nuclear-free zone, banned military parades and to top it all flew the Red Flag over the Town Hall.

Our reputation as anti-business and anti-motorist is also famous nationwide and it is hardly surprising that many businesses have chosen to locate in more welcoming areas. The trees saga will not help matters now that it has hit the national media.

The decimation of Sheffield’s Victorian trees is totally unnecessary and most of these 100-year-old trees (bar the diseased ones) are only halfway through their lives. Their replacements will have a maximum life of 60 years.

The problems of wobbly pavements and damaged walls could easily be resolved if the desire to do so existed.

It is so much easier and cheaper to get rid of the big lime trees which shed leaves and cost money to sweep up. The fact that the atmosphere and ambience of our historic streets is being destroyed is an irrelevance.

No-one has mentioned the elephant in the room which is that sheer political spite and class warfare is involved here inasmuch that most of the doomed trees are in Sheffield’s prettiest and most affluent suburbs. Nether Edge looks like being next for the chop if the proliferation of yellow ribbons are anything to go by and this will have a profound effect on this important conservation area.

The unfortunate and ironic thing about this sad saga is that one of the first roads to experience the Council’s jackboots ie Rustlings, is occupied mainly by Guardian reading Champagne socialists. During election campaigns most of these half million pound houses sport a Vote Labour poster in their front windows. You got what you voted for folks!

Chris Hamilton

from leafy, but not for much longer, S7