Dear Editor,

What have Ceredigion County Council got against trees? Is it that they have a habit of sticking too far out of the ground? There was once a spectacular mature cherry tree opposite the Small World Theatre in Cardigan. When in bloom, it must have given pleasure to many, locals and visitors alike, myself included. Now it is a pathetic stump, shorn of its stately branches and uplifting pink flowers. Who ordered its destruction? Did it somehow interfere with the tasteless so-called "development" which was thrown up next to it?

In a similar fit of municipal vandalism, the trees overlooking Aberporth's north beach have also been made to look like something out of a middle eastern war zone. To enhance this effect, the new terracing above the footpath has been apparently draped in camouflage netting, giving the whole feature the appearance of a gun emplacement. Does the council know something we don't? I can understand that officials in Penmorfa might not care about displacing birds and other wildlife, but you would think - naively perhaps - that they might at least have considered the negative effect on tourism that such intemperate pruning would produce in what are otherwise two attractive towns.

Keith Harrison

116 Glanymor Apartments, Aberporth,