• HOW casually some people go about chopping down trees.

Look at planning application 2017/0827/T, to fell trees in the garden of Gilling Court, Belsize Grove. The directors of the block (three people representing just two of the 104 flats) and the managing agents they appointed (without consultation with flat owners), want to cut down six trees.

We only know this thanks to Camden’s register of applications, because the directors and their agents have taken no steps to alert flat-owners, for example, by letter or notice in the common hallway. Repeated requests to have a communal noticeboard in the hallway where such information could be shared have so far been rejected.

The application to chop is unclear over who is applying. It gives a Gilling Court flat number but without any name; it names an employee of the managing agents as “applicant” but the employee now says in reply to a query: “The application was filed by the tree surgeon, and not myself”.

The application as filed says there is no health/danger risk and there is no expert advice. But the agent now says: “The trees which have been requested to be felled have been deemed to be in poor health by an independent tree surgeon, and so for H&S [health and safety] reasons they should be removed. If not there is the potential for them to fall onto people or the building. Please note that these trees have also been raised separately by the buildings insurer (sic)”.

As trees cannot look after themselves I have urged Camden to ensure that decisions on something as important as killing trees are not taken on the basis of secretive, questionable and clumsily drafted applications.

BARRY FOX, NW3