WE are writing to express our shock and outrage at a decision taken by Hambleton District Council planning committee on September 15.

The planning application in question concerned the avenue of lime trees on the approach to Snape village and the parish council’s wish to fell six trees and drastically prune the rest of the mature trees.

The application followed a report by Whitehead Associates, which a number of villagers considered too harsh.

As a result, they raised money for a second report carried out by Barnes Associates, which gave a much more favourable view of the avenue and said that much of the work proposed by Whitehead was unnecessary, not in accordance with current standards, would destroy habitat, make the trees less safe and would be far more expensive.

Also, the alleged suppression of the younger trees had been grossly overstated and was a non-issue.

Given the conflicting reports, Hambleton council commissioned a third report which was carried out by North Yorkshire County Council’s tree officer, Helen Arnold. This report concurred with the Barnes report.

Therefore, Hambleton planning officers recommended refusal of the application.

When the item came up, it was clear that the chairman was in no mood to follow the recommendation and proceeded to extol the virtues of Mr Whitehead and his report and completely disregarded the other two reports.

Apart from Councillor John Noone from Bedale, nobody gave any credence to the evidence in the Barnes and Arnold reports, so one wonders whether they had actually read them. Instead, they followed their chairman’s lead and voted to approve the application, thereby allowing the devastation of a valuable, unique and much-loved local feature.

We are told this is democracy in action. Instead it is local government at its worst, especially as there is no way to get this injustice remedied.

The cost of the work is estimated to be £17,500, which will be paid by public money, raised through local taxes and as such should be used in an appropriate fashion and not wasted purely to satisfy an ill-conceived scheme hatched by a dogmatic parish council.

We would urge anybody who loves the avenue to go and take a good look at it, as it won’t be in its current form for much longer.

John & Jane White, Askrigg