• RESIDENTS and local amenity groups are horrified that Thames Water has wantonly bulldozed a wild woodland full of birdsong, wildlife, trees, shrubs and dense undergrowth in Tile Kiln Lane, N6.

The site owned by Thames is next to one of its Highgate reservoirs. This devastation is supposedly just to put down tarmac for a couple of parking spaces after a vague inaccurate notification to Haringey Council.

Given the ecological importance of such places for our dwindling biodiversity how can such mindless destruction be justified.

Thames Water must call an immediate halt to all work, give rational explanations and carry out proper assessments. Permitted development rights cannot mean a free-for-all devoid of social responsibility.

The woodland has been full of owls, woodpeckers, a variety of other birds, bats, foxes, small mammals, and who knows how many species of insects, etc.

Bats are a protected species. There is no other similar wild place in the area which has been undisturbed for decades, apart from occasional on-foot survey visits by Thames, and a pruning of big sycamores.

It has truly been a wildlife sanctuary and vital green corridor with various trees and dense thickets throughout. Now it shouts extreme nakedness.

It is time that Thames Water stop acting as a law unto themselves in relation to nature and the local community.

SHARON LYTTON
Cromwell Ave, N6