IN the planning jargon of town-hall-speak 'visual amenity' means something nice to look at.

Yet, amazingly, in the eyes of Ribble Valley Council, something that's now detrimental to that are centuries-old beech, ash, oak and sycamore trees - 41 of which, they say, must be axed because they obscure the view of Clitheroe Castle whose keep they surround.

To add weight to the case for felling them, they say some are damaging the castle's mound. This is specious bunkum since the keep stands on an ancient limestone knoll zillions of years old and has done for 900-odd years, during most of which there were no council jobsworths around to advocate that chopping beautiful trees was a necessity.

And if people want to see the Castle, they can get out of their cars and go up and look at it - or wait until autumn when the trees lose their leaves.

The laughable, but unfunny, thing is, councillors have been getting considerably worked up lately about rampant vandalism in the Castle grounds - and, yet, are set to sanction this mass destruction.

Rightly, 'green' residents are seeing red. Send for Swampy and Co!