Network Rail must stop chopping down trees

SIR – You report (May 12) that Network Rail’s plan to fell millions of trees close to tracks has been challenged.

No traveller using the railway lines from London to Cornwall can have failed to notice the deforestation that the company has been carrying out for at least 15 years, ignoring the Wildlife and Countryside Act, destroying millions of healthy trees and leaving an empty, bare mess behind.

Mark Carne, the chairman of Network Rail, is a governor of Falmouth University. Assuming that he travels by train, he must also have seen how many of our pastures have given way to new housing, from London down to the South West. Every one of us needs the oxygen of seven trees per year to survive, not to mention their other environmental benefits. Mr Carne should think again. Ruth Winstone

Bideford, Devon

SIR – Last summer it was reported that a reduction in the number of flying insects resulted in nearly insect-free windscreens. I noticed this to be true.

The other day, I drove for four hours, and at the end of the journey my windscreen was as splattered with insects as it has ever been. Has anyone else seen a resurgence? Michael Bull

Grimsby, Lincolnshire