• I AND others have used the columns of the CNJ to slam Camden’s street planners for their destruction of magnificent mature trees – all the better to make the kerb lines look right on their schemes, giving preference to neat lines on a plan over the humanity of real life on the street.

But this isn’t enough for them. Most street trees have a square of earth around the base of their trunk – naked earth with its unseen ecosystem of microorganisms (organisms which can have a symbiotic relationship with the tree).

And these tiny corners of naturalness alongside the paving stones might even have a few wonderfully illegitimate green shoots of grass or vegetation, comfortingly reminding us of the planet we’re paving over. But for how much longer?

Walking Camden’s streets over the holiday weekend, I found tree after tree where the space between the nearest flagstone and the tree had been covered with a layer of tarmac – right up to the base of the trunk.

Must every last vestige of nature be smothered, in case it helps anyone remember the world we’re destroying? What a depressing way to finish the year.

ALBERT BEALE
Museum Chambers
Little Russell Street, WC1