Put a price on urban trees – and halt this chainsaw massacre | Patrick Barkham

From chestnuts in south London to elms in Sheffield, they improve mental health, and stem pollution and floods. Yet policymakers fail to see them as assetsIt’s a grim season for urban trees. The usual bustle of bicycles beneath a grand parade of 140-year-old chestnut trees that crosses Tooting Common, in south London, will cease tomorrow. Wandsworth council is closing Chestnut Avenue, the chainsaws are readied, and more than 50 much-loved mature trees will soon be chopped down. Related: Mi