WHAT possesses these council bosses who order the unnecessary chopping down of trees and flowers?

Are they not accountable to anyone?

For hard on the heels of another spring of deliberate daffodil destruction in Blackburn with Darwen's roadside verges, we see Ribble Valley Council having nearly 30 flowering trees and berry-bearing shrubs axed on a housing estate -- all to the residents' surprise and horror.

This is the same council, of course, that ordered mature trees to be felled in order to improve the environment around Clitheroe Castle -- saying they had to come down because they were all diseased when it turned out it was the excuse that was rot.

But what was the reason for the slashing-down of the trees and shrubs planted seven years ago by the builder of a Ribchester housing development? Apparently, the council did not want the expense or bother of maintaining them once it had adopted the road they graced and beautified. Now, there's a 100ft-long, bare brick wall where they stood.

Yet, did they ask the residents if that's what they prefer? Or whether this prudence over their council tax had their approval?

No, when you know best, you do not bother with such details. Such an attitude should be disabused -- in this case, by the person responsible for this latest outbreak of municipal vandalism getting a rocket, by the residents getting an apology and by replacement trees and shrubs being planted by the council.