HOW laudable of Herefordshire Council planning department to avert a re-enactment of the Civil War in Ledbury and also to protect threatened species of slow worms on the Galebreaker site. As regards nearby New Mills, the green site identified as area 15 on the 1997 Development Brief is also a habitat for protected species, including slow worms.

However planning permission for further dwellings on this natural habitat has been granted and building work is due to start shortly.

Perhaps slow worms on the Galebreaker site have more political clout than the ones on New Mills.

Last time the wild area of green site was mowed by developers many hedgehogs were massacred.

Presumably this will happen again prior to building work starting within the next few weeks. Is this inconsistency concerning the granting of planning permission on one site and not the other evidence of duplicity, genuine regard for the fate of lizards, or merely a case of snakes in the grass?


Ann Walker
Ledbury