Protesters have been camped at Dixon Clark Court for three months

• ISLINGTON Council may have won in the High Court – at its third attempt – but its claim that further environmental destruction at Highbury Corner is a price worth paying for an additional 25 council homes on the Dixon Clark Court estate is both absurd and misleading, (Highbury trees protest camp is defeated in court, February 5).

Right-To-Buy income from the sale of some of those properties has, from the outset, been factored into the financial viability of the scheme.

In an Orwellian twist, part of the recent job description for a housing new-builds funding officer is “the effective management of external investment within the borough such as RTB receipts…”

Let’s be clear, a council home sold under RTB is no longer a council home; not forgetting Orwell lived in nearby Canonbury Square.

As for those elected members who’ve sneered at protesters as exercising “white privilege”, they’ve clearly failed to notice the ethnic diversity of the tree-defenders, while an ex-mayor’s claim that the housing is being built on a “car-park” is simply ignorant.

Surely it’s now time that the 2011 code of conduct, to which the councillors are subject, be updated to include their behaviour on social media.

Trees and green aren’t only about the natural environment and climate protection but also public health, physical and mental, as is widely recognised.

Mature trees have already been chopped down on Highbury roundabout. Mature trees aren’t only about carbon capture. They are multi-functional, providing shade and cooling in summer and helping to prevent flooding.

While it’s small comfort in light of the court ruling, at least the judges got it right at both hearings: should the development go ahead, it’ll be an increase of 25 council homes, not the 27 spun by the politicians; and that’s before RTB further reduces that number.

Times have changed and decisions need to catch up.

MEG HOWARTH, N7