The National Farmers Union (NFU) has given its support to the ban on UK imports of ash saplings and the controlled movement of saplings within the UK.

Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22 per cent coverage of trees compared to a national average of 12 per cent, and this figure has increased markedly in recent years.

Ash in particular has thrived across Surrey and currently makes up around 10 per cent of the county's total woodland – including large populations in Alice Holt Forest, on the Hampshire-Surrey border.

But the spread of fungal disease Chalara dieback is threatening as much as 95 per cent of the UK's ash trees, and there are fears it could change Surrey's landscape forever.

Full story see this week's Herald.