Sir – It is a matter of great concern that Richmond Council has a plan, already being implemented, to grub out countless healthy and mature shrubs in Terrace Gardens and replace them with small ground-cover plants.

This will be detrimental to bird life through habitat destruction and will also be damaging to what has been the uniquely beautiful character of these Grade II listed gardens for 120 years.

Many regular users of the gardens will be disturbed by what is being done to the planting without their prior knowledge or consent.

Unlike the repairs to the hard landscaping, which were essential, this replanting is unnecessary, wasteful of public funds, and lacking a mandate from the public.

Equally worrying is the council’s recent announcement that 23 trees are to be felled in the gardens for health and safety reasons.

A few of the trees in question have already been identified and an independent tree expert has examined them and has said that most of them could be made safe by pruning and cable-bracing.

Health and safety measures, taken to lengths out of all proportion to the actual risk involved, do the public no service.

On the contrary, they do a great disservice to the environment, which is essential to everyone’s physical and mental well-being.

RON MCEWEN
Church Road
Richmond