Ash tree crisis
A fungal disease is wiping out ash trees across the country, and now there's a warning that it could spread to the capital.
Ash disease: 'We acted too late'
The coalition government has been accused by a Tory peer of acting too late in its handling of ash dieback disease.
The Earl of Selborne said public reaction to the outbreak had been one of disbelief that once again the nation had been "caught by surprise" despite earlier warnings.
He urged ministers to set up methods of identifying threats to Britain's trees and plants much earlier, through better monitoring and surveillance.
Opening a Lords debate on the future of British ash trees, Lord Selborne, a former president of the Royal Agricultural Society, likened the "crisis" to the impact of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.
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