Madam,

It was interesting to see Mr Davies explain how he estimated opposition to his proposed tree sculpture on Borth beach (letters, 26 July). He divided the number of letters of opposition by the population.

It was very helpful of him to provide numbers of letters both for and against as this enables us to calculate the percentage for and against from these numbers.

There were 79 letters in support and 95 letters opposed.

This gives us a percentage of letters in support of 45.4 per cent, and a percentage opposed of 54.6 per cent.

The margin here (4.6 per cent) is actually more than double the result of the Brexit vote! A total of 174 letters is a meaningful sample, although not all the letters (on both sides) were from local people.

However, we can do much better than that. When a door-to-door petition opposing the tree was carried out the results were 204 signatures, and four who chose not to sign. This is an opposition level of 98 per cent. It’s possible that some people signed simply to get back indoors as quickly as possible, so the true figure of local opposition probably lies somewhere between these two figures, ie between 54 per cent and 98 per cent.

I live in Borth and it’s very clear that local opposition to the tree is both broad and deep, with a large majority opposed. It’s a major topic of conversation both person to person and in the online discussion group, and if you walk through the village you can see many posters in the windows opposing this project.

A large majority of we local people simply do not want this 10m bronze tree imposed on us against our will.

Yours etc,

Tom Gunn, Borth.

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