Editor

Charmian Savill (Views, 24March) is so right. The felling of mature trees at the Machynlleth community hospital was an appalling act of climate vandalism. We can and must do so much better than this– especially bodies that are supposed to be acting in the interests of and on behalf of the public.

It is high time that outdated, bureaucratic planning structures and chains of responsibility were rewritten, to reflect 21st century values.

In similar vein, last year,because of Ash Dieback Disease, Ceredigion council sent a leaflet to householders outlining the responsibilities of landowners whose land abuts the highway.Instead of providing support and encouragement to manage roadside trees, they scared landowners into badly-done“blanket” felling – which is of course the cheapest way, if you think that you may be sued for a branch falling into the road. And many have felled healthy oak, beech and sycamore while they were at it. The result is a county blighted with jagged roadside stumps.

A mature tree seals up masses of carbon, and as Charmian points out by the time young replacement trees planted now are even half grown the planet will have heated up enough to make their planting useless and irrelevant. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be planting trees, we should, but we must above all take care of our mature trees properly. Councils should also be aware that if you chop down all the ash trees you won’t be able to identify those that can resist the disease. Some will be able to, and of course they will be the future of the ash species if the councils will let it have one.

Diana Heeks,Joppa,Llanrhystud

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