Protesters in the Hampstead Road trees [Photos: Simon Lamrock]

• WE can’t help but wonder if any of HS2’s PR companies have ever been to Camden.

The statement: “We have a commitment to replace any trees removed in Camden as close to the location of any removed tree” would suggest not and the statement: “HS2’s low-carbon railway will help in the fight against climate change” suggests their science is no better than their geography, (Tree activist: ‘We can still stop HS2’, October 15).

Saplings are no replacement for mature trees. So although HS2 might at some future date plant a sapling somewhere in Camden, right now the mature trees around Euston are being sliced down with chainsaws in full sight.

The building and development around Euston leaves very few new places where a tree can take root, so there is little scope for more trees in the south of the borough.

Euston is being stripped of all our trees and a whole generation of our children are growing up without mature trees.

The benefits of trees are well documented – mental health and amenity, lifting the spirits, and looking green and beautiful: “HS2 is making where we live ugly” the primary children say.

Trees also have practical benefits in holding rainwater, cleansing air pollution and binding carbon. Our planet needs more trees and we must stop cutting them down. We have a climate and ecological emergency, and HS2 is making it worse.

DOROTHEA HACKMAN
The Euston Tree Protectors