Trees at Dixon Clark Court

• CONCERN for preserving the trees at Dixon Clark Court does not mean lack of concern for providing new homes.

The trees support public health in a site of high air pollution due to traffic. Living in such a site is a risk factor for severe reaction to Covid-19 as well as asthma and other conditions.

That site needs all the mature trees it can muster. Other sites in Islington need trees to soak up pollutants and promote psychological wellbeing in these stressful times as well.

A view of trees has been found to shorten time needed for hospital stays compared with a view of a brick wall.

In 1968 when I first moved into my street in Islington the back areas were all concreted over. There were no street trees, although there was a bomb site across the way providing fenced-off open space.

The houses all seemed oppressively close, window-to-window and wall-to-wall. Now the back areas are full of trees and shrubs, and the street planted with a number of trees of varying degrees of success in surviving.

My own front area has shrubs and plants; another house has allowed numerous wildflowers to sprout in its front area, and most houses seem to have at least a window box.

Sadly the flats that replaced the bomb site don’t have window ledges, but there are plants and shrubs in the communal areas to relieve the concrete.

Now so many people are at home in the day, this makes a huge psychological improvement as well as mitigating air pollution.

So yes, we need more council housing, but we also need trees for public health.

VIRGINIA LOW
Queen’s Head Street, N1