SIR – I live half a mile away from the boundary with Birmingham and from my garden I can see high rise flats and a large supermarket.

In our gardens we hear the roar of nearby traffic almost constantly. Hardly a beauty spot!

Many of the back gardens of our street have large oak trees which put almost the entire garden in shade if not cut back regularly. A tree surgeon told me that the trees should have been cut down before the houses were built as they are too close to the houses.

Now an impressively named legal equalities and democratic (LED) services department from the council wants to put a tree preservation order on our trees. This would mean significant expense and trouble for us, simply to trim the trees in our own gardens.

What’s democratic or equal about that? More like illegal, unequal and autocratic!

In contrast, my husband developed early onset dementia at the age of 48. We found that the council provided no appropriate services for him, such as day care or respite care. As a result, a difficult situation was made much worse for us. And there are about 200 people with early onset dementia in Worcestershire.

Why should our council tax fund a busybody service like LED which only antagonises people who are quite capable of looking after the trees in their own gardens, when the same council fails to provide services for such desperately needy people as my late husband?

Joyce Mason
Hollywood, near Redditch