Saddened by the rape of Fitzroy Park

A walk down Fitzroy Park in Highgate used to be like being transported to a country lane, surrounded by nature and birdsong. Not any more. It is now permanently congested with the detritus of building works, where the number and the nature of the projects

A walk down Fitzroy Park in Highgate used to be like being transported to a country lane, surrounded by nature and birdsong. Not any more.

It is now permanently congested with the detritus of building works, where the number and the nature of the projects is reaching a scale reminiscent of The Bishop's Avenue.

I thought that planners had to consider the quality of the environment in a location before allowing extensive redevelopment, but maybe that is not the case.

Currently huge earthworks are taking place at No 10, a monstrous project is planned for Fitzroy Farm and it will soon be your last chance to see The Elms before it disappears behind a wall whose proportions puts Colditz to shame.

Within you'll see a massive over-development of a site that has already been five years of muck and lorries.

I support sympathetic and appropriate redevelopment but it seems in Fitzroy Park some residents, aided by the planners, will kill the goose that laid the golden egg by destroying one of the key elements that made this street so special.

Today the only nature you are guaranteed to see are the frogs and toads, whose corpses have been flattened by the traffic.

Maurice Melzak

Fitzroy Park, N6