I am incensed to read that the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are in crisis, being stripped of funds and losing top botanists and support staff.

Meanwhile, the ridiculous vanity project of London's "Garden Bridge" is approved, at massive and continuing costs for construction and maintenance. This is silly extravagance at a time of tightened budgets - London is blessed with abundant tourist attractions already, and doesn't need Disneyfication.

The whole world does however need Kew. Not only for its magnificent well-established gardens, but, even more, its world-beating role in plant research, conservation, classification and archiving. It is in the forefront of world-wide plant research for health and ecology.

I have no personal connection with Kew, only deep disgust at the distorted priorities that are corrupting London; to a great extent due to the antics of Boris Johnson.

Barbara Sanders

SW20