THE planting of Leylandii hedgerows must surely rate as one of the biggest scourges to blight the urban landscape.

Fast-growing and dense, they attract the gardener to plant them in an attempt to gain privacy.

Unfortunately, the end result is that unless they are well tended and trimmed to be kept at a reasonable height, they grow to 30-40ft and thick to boot.

Fast-growing points are at all times visible and appear menacing to neighbours who suffer from lack of light to their homes and gardens with poor soil due to the tentacle-like roots.

The Lammack area of Blackburn, where I live, was once an area of natural beauty, with open spaces and native trees such as oak, elm and horse chestnut dotted about. Now, it is fast becoming the forest of Lammack as the Leylandii sinisterly take over the land and blot out the landscape.

To anyone reading this, I ask you to consider what is happening and if you have these trees in your garden please ensure that they are kept to a reasonable level, or, better still, dig them up and burn them.

Name and address supplied.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.