CRICKET fans visiting New Road for the first match in Worcestershire's county championship campaign would do well to take a good look around them as they pass through the gates into the county ground today.

Because the next time they visit, things are likely to look very different. Six of the lime trees that have lined the Worcester street for decades will not be there in a month's time after the city council decided they were unsafe.

They were going to be felled tomorrow until the Worcester News pointed out that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to do the work - which will involve lane closures on New Road - at a time when hundreds of people were flocking to watch the cricket.

Let's ignore that silly piece of scheduling for a moment and ask whether the trees really have to come down at all.

Worcester City Council tree protection officer Geoff Poole assures us the work is necessary after an independent survey found they were structurally unsound - and, indeed, a driver was hit by a falling tree during high winds last year.

But perhaps we are getting a bit paranoid in these days of health-and-safety officers and no-win-no-fee accident claims.

It's a fact of life that trees sometimes fall down in bad weather, but the chances are so remote most people don't worry about it.

The trees give New Road its leafy character and the thoroughfare is likely to look very bare after tomorrow's arboreal cull.

The council says the trees will be replaced. We'll hold them to that.