Hedgerows need to be protected (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Hedgerows need to be protected
8:50am Sunday 4th November 2012 in Letters
Sir.-Now it is getting colder I expect we will see the farmers and their workmen out smashing up the hedgerows again.
Last year I walked by hedges not far from Basingstoke that had been so heavily cut with machinery that thick branches lay all along the field footpath.
If my two sons had done that they might have been called names by the farmer or accused of vandalism.
I’ve already seen thrashed hedges with all the debris in the road.
Hedges by roads have to be trimmed, but so often and so badly? Just as wild birds come to spend winter here from Scandinavia and Russia, looking for berries in the hedges, some of the farming community seem determined to strip all shelter or food out, even if they’re not near a road.
I suppose it’s called “improving the land” and I expect the machinery is tax-deductible.
R J Parry Jones Winchester Road, Basingstoke.
