THE advice from Oxford City Council about a cedar tree standing in the way of building a micro-hydro generator in Osney is a nonsense.

Basically, if West Oxford Community Renewables submitted plans for a generator, and kept the tree and others in place, the scheme would likely to be rejected because of harm to the cedar.

However, if the cedar gets the chop and other trees planted nearby, then the scheme is likely to be approved.

It brings to mind the oft-quoted statement to sum up the Vietnam war: “We had to destroy the village to save it.”