Transport for London’s wholesale butchery of trees along the embankment between Northwood Hills and Pinner is concerning and unacceptable not least because it is just the beginning of an ongoing “essential maintenance program”.

It’s claims that “vegetation is only removed when there is an absolute need to do so” are risible. The photos show there has been sheer carnage and countless stumps of trees have been ripped out. There isn’t a tree in sight.

TfL’s failure to consult locals about the works which has - and will - seriously impact their air quality and cause pollution not to mention visual amenity, calls into question further concerns about TfL’s management.

Why was no one consulted? Who deemed the trees to be unsafe? Was a qualified arboriculturalist engaged? Was an environmental impact assessment carried out?

The alarming lack of protection to our natural environment is drawn into sharp focus. In a respiratory pandemic, living with lethal air pollution to then be ripping out the foliage is madness.

The timing is telling: is it yet another nail in our coffin after the exit from the European Union and that now UK is not bound by EU standards or protection, acts which would be otherwise deemed to be criminal acts of vandalism are being sanctioned?

Dave Degen

Whippendell Road, Watford