Dear Editor,

Many is the time I have walked in this garden. Its Fritillaries and Blue Bells, Snowdrops and Figwort decorate its aged beauty. The Rudhall here used to have a bench where you might sit and watch the kingfishers. Not now - if there was a bench, you could study the rubbish fly tipped into the stream.

The hedge and trees adjacent to the fitness centre were home to butterflies such as the not so common Holly Blue and the Common Blue butterfly. The Sycamores in this hedge were of healthy wood though in need relieving of their vine.

Nature is not tidy but the mind of man makes up for this when private property is threatened. The act of vandalism was perpetrated by contractors for Herefordshire Council. I was told by one it was done at the behest of a land owner who owns adjacent property.

Tell me this shows any regard for the nature which inhabits this small area or that the blossoming eyesore which now marrs the car park and pump house. Nature is simply violated with no apparent thought to restoration.

That so little maintenance is being done to the infrastructure of Ross, it is incredulous that Herefordshire Council is paying to protect private property and derelicting what was a beautiful area. To add to the insult the fly tipping was left in place.

Nature must be nurtured--the trees replaced. Here the chainsaw was an undertaker.

Mark Fewtrell

Ross-on-Wye