I USED to live on Lord Mayor’s Walk.

I thought myself lucky, living on one of the most beautiful streets in one of the most beautiful cities in England.

One of the reasons I liked the street, where we rented a flat for almost three years, was the avenue of lime trees along most of its length. Shady in summer and statuesque in winter, it was a pleasure to see them from our living room window.

In recent years, I have been alarmed to see a number of these long-established trees disappear. It has made a huge difference to the way the street looks - it is by far the worse for it.

Now an application has been lodged by York St John University - who were responsible for the previous felling of limes in that location - to remove even more of these lovely trees, 14 to be exact.

They claim that the trees are rotten and pose a danger, but the trees of a similar maturity, on the opposite side of the avenue, are fine...

This happens all too often, especially here in York, where we don’t have enough trees as it is. You drive into other cities of a similar size, like Oxford, Norwich and Cambridge, and it is immediately evident along the route how many more trees there are, both at the roadside and in people’s gardens. For some reason, we are sorely lacking.

I am a bit of an eco-warrior when it comes to trees. I seem to be forever embroiled in battles to stop them being felled. The problem is, even when you think you’ve won the battle and a tree is given a reprieve by the local authority, chances are it will be given a death sentence on appeal.

This has happened more than once with trees I have fought for and it is extremely disheartening and upsetting. Sadly, having a Tree Preservation Order doesn’t seem to hold much sway.

Sometimes, trees are given a lifeline, but are butchered within an inch of their lives, ending up looking like one of those limbless Greek statues. They never seem to recover, even after years.

Sometimes, landowners offer to replant trees, selecting spindly specimens that take ten years to grow three feet.

I don’t understand why people don’t like trees. They are the reason we exist, for pity’s sake. They produce oxygen and clean the air of carbon dioxide. Without them we would not be able to go about our daily lives. Yet we repay that by chopping them down.

Not that they should all be saved, but many losses are unnecessary. The widespread felling of healthy street trees in Sheffield is a national disgrace.

In the village where I live we are destined to lose a wood, planted in 2012 to mark The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, because the road is being dualled - something I, and many others, don’t believe is necessary.

My dad - whose modest garden is full of lovely trees he planted, including walnut, ash, silver birch and apple - says that trees scare people. They don’t like the leaves that fall in the autumn, or the twigs that drop on windy nights, or even the birds that settle in them to roost. They are an inconvenience, an irritation.

On a global level, as much as 80 per cent of forests across the world have been destroyed or damaged to accommodate man’s farming and industrial practices. This is all very depressing, especially considering that trees can help to combat climate change and air pollution.

So I will be objecting to the removal of even more trees from Lord Mayor’s Walk. I don’t know whether it will do any good - I strongly suspect it won’t - but it’s better than doing nothing.