"Deeply saddened by the alterations to Evening Hill"

Apparently the chain saws have been fired up on the back of trees that are not native to the area and because this falls into the protected area of Luscombe Valley. What a joke.

Has anyone ever wondered why Luscombe Valley is billiard table flat? Not very natural.

My family lived alongside Luscombe Valley. I was a child at the time.

I played in amongst the high reeds of Luscombe Valley and witnessed at first hand the wonderful wading birds and wider wildlife that treated it as home.

It was an idyllic experience. I was a mini Humphrey Bogart In the African Queen.

Then, in the 1960s, I’m not sure when, a developer arrived out of the blue and tipped 400 lorry loads of spoil on to the completely innocent and unsuspecting nature in a very short period of time.

Some say it was builder’s rubble.

The effect destroyed all those habitats, and flooded my parent’s house as feeder streams had been dammed.

I remember moor hens swimming up to our back door.

I was at school but I can remember my family’s lengthy court case that was fuelled by not only angst but sheer disbelief.

There were various attempts to build and to create a car park on my treasured valley.

Don’t get me wrong. I am now very glad that the area is protected.

I was prompted by this traumatising event to go on to be a councillor for the area and eventually president of the Dorset Lake Association.

Perhaps there is more work that BCP Council could undertake to return Luscombe Valley to its origins?

DR BRUCE GRANT-BRAHAM

Holt, Wimborne