HAS anybody thought about what happens to the head of six grazing cattle trapped in the compound just set up on Bourne Valley heath between Bloxworth Road and St Brelades Avenue when (not if) it catches fire.

It has caught fire around eight times in the last 10 years to my knowledge.

This compound last caught fire around three years ago and yet the area of both damp and dry heath has now been fenced off like a private game reserve and grazing cattle put into a small, very high risk, urban fire area with no means of escape.

A fire is still a fire whether it whips across damp heath at four feet high or dry heath at up to 80 feet high and if cattle get in the way, panic is still panic for cattle and a burn is still a burn.

A lot of expense has gone into this venture and personally I don’t think much of the thought that went into it since the expensive wooden fencing will burn just like the heath and very pleasant domesticated livestock that have relied upon man for their welfare since around 5000BC will be unnecessarily put at risk.

Someone undertook a risk assessment so there must be some funding economics of Government policy that were used to overcome this apparent high risk event but did anybody ask the cattle? For if not, it’s up to a responsible human to do it for them.

DOUGLAS MILLS, Fraser Road, Poole