Peel Holdings has now decided it needs to take out 16.50 hectares of woodland on Hulton Park. This means thousands of trees will be going.

It is little wonder the President of Brazil said, ‘you have chopped down your forests and now you are telling us to not chop down ours because it effects global warming. Who do you think you are?’!

Never a truer word was said.

If this gets through planning then nowhere is safe.

This is now about public health, it is not about golf or house shortages; it is not even about money any more. This is about being reckless.

The M61 corridor hit 9.50 out of a possible 10 in February 2019 and pollution levels regularly hit levels above the permitted target close to the area.

If the proposed changes on Hulton Park take place, the effect on pollution levels will be enormous. Normal English woodland houses some 600 to 1.400 individual trees of varying sizes and specie.

The proposed 16.50 hectares could represent in the worst scenario the loss of some 23,100 trees.

Add this to 5,000 metres of hedgerow and you get a good guide as to how pollution levels will be affected in that area.

This does not include the vast area of pasture land which will be used up for the houses, hotel, car parks etc.

It takes six mature trees to take up the pollution produced by one car.

An average car emits about 4.50 tonne of Co2 each year. With the proposed 1,200 houses, car numbers could easily rise over 2,400 within the first 12 months.

At present our tree population is under threat as never before.

Many are dying or being weakened through the side effects of pollution.

There are already 130 million ash trees in imminent peril from Ash Die Back.

All could be killed, meaning a staggering 30 per cent of all woodland could be gone with this one species alone.

Ash trees are home to some 900 different species with 40 relying on it entirely. We have sudden larch death which can be seen round Bolton, acute oak decline, bleeding canker in chestnuts, needle blight which attacks conifers and so on.

The thousands of trees chopped down will also release their stored Co2. Is this what we want or need in the Bolton?

CONCERNED