Sir – I read with considerable sadness the report last week of the proposal to remove some of the trees from The Park Hospital site to make way for yet more University buildings.

I started work at The Park Hospital for Children in 1958, not long after it had become a children’s psychiatric hospital under the directorship of Dr Christopher Ounsted.

He believed passionately that the environment in which children lived whilst they were in the hospital was an integral part of their treatment offering them a safe and tranquil setting in which to play. The house itself, as reported in your paper, was one of the grandest in Headington and its grounds at the time it became a children’s hospital already included a number of large mature trees of great historical interest.

In order to protect these grounds, Dr Ounsted had the foresight to plan to plant more trees to cover the site and we held a number of fundraising events to meet the cost of this.

Eventually a tree expert was brought in and two, if not three small groups of beautiful specialist trees were planted “for posterity”.

To remove these trees and, presumably reduce the size of the grounds is nothing short of criminal and should be resisted at all costs.

Susan Offen, Woodstock