Why do developers Betterment Properties think it is acceptable to move onto a site, chop down 30 mature trees and “clear the site” before a planning application has even been submitted? (last Tuesday’s Echo).

If they worked with nature and designed their development around the trees and wildlife, they would end up with a scheme that was better for the environment, better for people, and quite probably more profitable as well.

We need to think differently with new development and use imagination and creativity rather than go in with chainsaws in this shocking act of destruction.

This is an area where our council could take the lead and require developers to work with nature rather than against it.

Alastair Nisbet

Dorchester