Protest at Park View

• UNTIL I read your article about the tree (40 homes, but tree’s facing chop, July 30), I was unaware of the Park View estate, Highbury’s, existence although it is within walking distance of my house.

I have now been there and am surprised that the council claims the tree needs to be uprooted.

It stands in a triangle of grass no bigger than my modest back garden with its base on Collins Road and bounded to the east by the estate’s boundary wall and to the west by a narrow estate road immediately on the other side of which stands one of the blocks of the existing estate.

I cannot see how housing can be built there without diminishing that block’s light nor, in any event, how much housing could be crammed into so small an area.

The council claims the tree is dying. Why then is it proposing to incur the expense of uprooting and replanting it? Does “dying” mean it will be dead next year or that it will last for another 20?

STEPHEN HORNE
Romilly Road, N4