While drastic situations may call for drastic measures, the Minister of Transport is going too far if his plans for improved traffic flow, as in the Central Link Project, involve the massacre of hundreds of mature trees.

Not only are they an iconic feature of the area’s environmental heritage, providing a visual treat and much-needed shade, they are actually nature’s own antidote to the very pollution extra traffic will create. Traffic and roads cannot be allowed to expand indefinitely and to take priority over all other considerations. Where a resource such as road space is limited, then consumption has to be reduced accordingly, albeit by hugely unpopular methods such as restricting vehicle ownership or introducing charges for entry into particularly congested areas.

A less disruptive measure would be to improve the salaries and conditions for bus drivers to reflect the essential service they carry out, and make public transport altogether more efficient and attractive to users.

A professionally-managed and properly-staffed school bus service would also help by reducing the number of parents’ cars on the roads at busy times.

It is high time the authorities stopped regarding trees as disposable. They are vital to wildlife and essential to everyone’s health. They should be revered and protected at all cost, and hundreds more should be planted.