Letter: Preserving The Wrekin environment

Letter: If you saw an injured cat or dog would you rescue it? Think about it, isn't life strange. At this precise moment forest animals are about to be wiped away. Badgers, foxes, hares, hedgehogs, spiders, all insects, butterflies, pheasants, animal habitats, bats, nests with eggs, every species of wild flower, trees, grasses, bluebell woodlands, ponds, copses and this isn't even the start of the environmental damage.

UK Coal is preparing to dig out 900,000 tons out of the belly of that tired mountain lady The Wrekin and the petticoat that surrounds her. She who throws enchantment and bewitchment to us all. We have the right to protect her, she doesn't take, she gives. She is the magic of Shropshire. We watch Lord of the Rings and like to believe that when J. R. R. Tolkien stayed close by, maybe a little of his story for his book came from The Wrekin.

She shows us the way home, she shares her seasons and if you stand in the middle of that wise old forest you're as close to God as you'll ever be.

There's a group of men and women quietly living on the site between New Works and Little Wenlock, protesting, fighting,for the rights of the forest animals.

They are a reminder to all 80 year olds to remember their forefathers and their own Wrekin stories, the wrinklies like me, in our 50s and 60s. with our memories, the 40 somethings who can still make it up there in good time, the teenagers who do their courting among the magic.

We need to preserve The Wrekin not destroy it.

Jacky Bilton

Donnington