MANY thanks to Cllr Jonathan Sears of the Green Party for answering my queries regarding the unnecessary felling of four trees on Willow Lane (Letters, last week).

He, along with most of your readers may be interested to know that the reason given for the felling of the trees was that they were 'severely diseased'.

With that in mind I mailed pictures of the trees - both before and after felling - and cross section shots of the stumps to tree experts across the world. The verdict was that there was little wrong with them and they would have flourished for at least 20 more years.

To any reasonable person it must seem disgusting that while the matter of the felling of the trees was under debate, someone in clear league with the builders was intent on making any judgement irrelevant.

It also makes it plainly evident that some at the Town Hall have vested interests that make a mockery of what it should stand for - which is impartial service to the people of this community.

One thing is certain, this style of democratic abuse must be rooted out and stopped before people lose what little faith they still have in those who administer this city.

For some it may seem surprising that the felling of four good trees should cause so much anger. If, however, this anger is placed in the much broader context of a world wide trend we see that the felling of millions of trees in millions of neighbour-hoods across the world amounts to a crisis that is one cause of the Sixth Extinction now upon us.

We are desecrating the planet beneath us and if taken much further the planet will have its revenge and we will cease to exist. Indeed some experts don't see much of a future beyond 50 years. How much plainer could it be?

Gordon Tavener, Willow Lane, Lancaster.