Cut the traffic, not the trees

Sir — I’ve lived in many different cities, but Brighton and Dublin have got to be my two favourites. They are perfect sized cities and they have lots of similarities.

The reason I’m writing is to let you know that if somebody in Brighton suggested cutting down trees to widen a city centre road, there would be uproar and loud laughter as they would look at it as a joke. It just wouldn’t be entertained.

What they would do there is close a car lane to create a bus lane.

Yes, of course, this is an inconvenience to drivers (and I say this even though I make a living driving around Dublin) but we will at some stage have to realise that we have to be more pedestrian friendly, more bus friendly and more cyclist friendly. Hopefully, we realise this sooner rather than later.

Next time you are walking around Dublin, notice how long it takes for pedestrian lights to change to green. Similar pedestrian lights in Brighton change twice as quickly — in the pedestrians’ favour. And, yes, this makes driving around Brighton city centre a nightmare — but it’s done that way on purpose, to put people off bringing their cars into the city centre.

City-centre traffic should be for public transport and service vehicles. That’s it.

This may sound extreme, but we should be growing new trees in the city centre — not cutting them down and by so doing destroying the beauty of our city. David Hennessy, Dublin 2