The photographs on the Times of Malta featuring the majestic trees on the Mdina Road show what a great loss for the island it would be if those trees were uprooted. Heather Brown’s letter (June 22), accompanied by one of the photos, was a spirited defence of those trees.

The Mdina Road trees are part of Malta’s natural patrimony. It would be sheer folly to uproot them. Ian Borg, the current – and transient – Minister of Transport shows poor judgement in being hell-bent on removing them.

When tourists visit Rabat and Mdina along the tree-lined Mdina Road, they sense they are getting close to one of Malta’s heritage sites. The majestic trees present a dignified approach to Malta’s ancient citadel.

Since my childhood in the 1950s, these trees have always filled me with anticipation and with a sense of Malta’s past as I approached Saqqajja Hill and Mdina from Santa Venera, where I used to live. In my imagination, I often pictured previous generations of Maltese people travelling along the same road, lined with the same trees, on their way to the harvest festival of L-Imnarja.

Imagine driving along the Mdina Road after the trees are uprooted. How bare and forlorn the road would be without them. You murmur to yourself: “What have we done?” But then it would be too late.