Sir – Like Josephine Seccombe (Letters, September 25), I was appalled to see the savage and completely unnecessary flailing of the hedge alongside the footpath on the north side of the A40 between Cassington and Eynsham a couple of weeks ago.

 

One is used to seeing this kind of slaughter perpetrated by farmers on their own land, but surely local authorities should take a more enlightened approach?

 

Your correspondent suggested that whoever was responsible should be ‘thoroughly ashamed of themselves’.

 

I suggest that if council staff were responsible, they should be disciplined; and if private contractors were responsible, their contract should be terminated.

 

Catherine M Robinson, Oxford