Many people have asked why trees and other vegetation has been cut down on the section of the A505 between the McDonalds roundabout at Royston and the Coombe Road turning the Kelshall (just before the petrol station).
Highways say that they have done this as part of work to clear a ditch that runs down the central reservation between the two carriageways and that they have only removed trees that were in the ditch, too close to the edge of the road or were already dead. Although clearing the ditch before it causes a problem is probably a good idea (and there are many other places where they could clear ditches) I think that they have removed far more vegetation than was really necessary.

I have a meeting with the highway engineers responsible for the project next week at which they are going to explain to me why they have done this work.

At present I understand that there are no plans to remove the trees and hedges further west beyong Coombe Road, so they have probably finished cutting, at least for the moment.