• IT’s hard to believe that the healthy mature trees in the foreground of the photograph, above, may well be axed and the beautiful vista lost for ever, not only to residents of the 15-storey block but also to the considerable street-level footfall which, in normal times, passes the site daily.

It seems Islington Council was determined to fell them this week “before it becomes too dangerous to do so”.

Is the council exploiting the COVID-19 lock-down which currently prevents residents from protecting the trees (Protesters branch out in a bid to save ‘little forest’, March 13)? It certainly seems like it.

In light of the public-health emergency, I have written to Islington chief executive, Linzi Roberts-Egan, asking that she immediately halt the removal of the trees. In no way is this “essential” work.

How bitterly ironic it would be to destroy the Dixon Clark Court “little forest” only to find all construction work in the capital banned for the forseeable future, as the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wishes and as, at the time of writing, Taylor Wimpey and Mates have already done.

In an act of political stubbornness, the council seems intent on leaving an empty, boarded-up site in place of this lovely natural space.

As council leader Richard Watts said earlier this week on Twitter: “…so many people in Islington… don’t have the luxury of their own outside space”. Precisely.

Our collective mental wellbeing demands a respect for the borough’s limited green space. A reminder to Cllr Watts and environment boss Cllr Rowena Champion – 2020 is the designated “Year of the Tree”.

MEG HOWARTH
Ellington Street, N7