I WAS horrified on Sunday, January 20, when I was cycling along Drigg Road to Drigg churchyard enjoying the lovely scenery and the sight of beautiful snowdrops out in the hedgerows, when suddenly just passing Stubble Green, on the right side of the road, my eyes were suddenly drawn, not to spring flowers,but to long lines of horrid brown rusty patches along a footpath close to the roadside verge, and also to the hedge, which had not been there the previous time I cycled past. Nor was it just at this point, but more had been sprayed further round the corner opposite the road turning down to Drigg Station. Both areas had been done recently with someone using weedkillers on the grass, and turning both areas into an eyesore. My joy was quickly turned to anger for there was no need for it. It wasn't in someone's garden, or in a park, just a small track for people to walk on. The green grass wasn't long, and the few so called weeds were still too small to cause any problems, so in my eyes, it was completely a waste of time, and quite unnecessary.

The person who did it, how did he know that at the same time he could also be poisoning the worms and other insects in the ground, which our country birds depend on, especially now in winter and chilly days and nights on the forecast. Also damaging small clumps of daffodils, primroses, and yellow seedlings about to shoot through and appear in both areas that have now been sprayed, and most of all our hedgehogs, which are now classed as an endangered species, and they too need these worms and slugs to survive.

No wonder these creatures, birds, and wildflowers are declining. What chances do they all have when we humans continue to use these deadly chemicals and pellets on the roadsides, in our gardens, and on open farm fields. Here we are trying to protect them and keeping them alive, and here you are doing your best to destroy them with poison.

Which is more important, killing our nature or saving it, as much as possible, in the ever changing world we live in? I know which one I would choose. Do you?

In this letter I have I plea to you to stop before it's too late and we lose what we have got. I cannot change your mind or stop your job, but if it should carry on regardless, all we have around us could very easily vanish from our countryside for ever, and I'm quite sure that none of us would want that to happen. So please, think very carefully over what I have said.

We need our wildlife as much as they need us. They are part of us and need our support, our kindness, our understanding, and above all, they don't deserve this treatment from us.

BARRIE ROBINSON

Seascale