On the morning of May 23, a supposedly protected mature oak tree, which provided a habitat for parakeets, jays, woodpeckers and other wildlife, was in the process of being felled.

I phoned Bromley Council but it transpired a meeting had taken place on the previous evening and permission had been granted to the new owner of the site (designated as urban open space) to fell the tree.

Apparently, he had a report from a “tree consultant” claiming this mature oak was diseased. A copy of the report was requested from the council’s tree preservation officer but it “could not be released”.

How confident the applicant must have been of the outcome of that council meeting to have had the tree surgeons on the premises at 9am the following morning.

Could it have anything to do with his son being a council employee and, as we understand, the prospective dweller of any accommodation successfully constructed upon the site?

Having pursued all the correct channels, residents are now fed up with Bromley Council’s apparent disinterest in protecting the environment which one man seems able to systematically desecrate with impunity.

M Russell Pickhurst Mead Hayes